


Adventures Of Ain: Cosmic Heat

by Valentine_SaintClaire



Category: Furry (Fandom), Original Work
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Dark Past, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Earth, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Kidnapping, Love/Hate, M/M, McDonald's, Military Science Fiction, New World, Original Character(s), Past Relationship(s), Science Fiction, Space Opera, Working With Enemies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23829238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine_SaintClaire/pseuds/Valentine_SaintClaire
Summary: For years a war has been brewing on an interplanetary level and Ain a young dragon gets himself wrapped into it because of his past and an old flame that won't let him go.Epic adventure, fierce fights and new worlds
Relationships: Ain/Dylan
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Ain's eyes shot open as he jolted upward. His pupils scanned around his small room. "Damn, must've been that dream again..." With a groan he pulled the cover aside and groggily rolled off of his bed. As he stood his eyes landed on his trembling hand; after taking a few deep breaths his trembling stopped. His attention turned toward the dim window. The dark gray clouds staining the sky foretold a cold and rainy morning. "Guess I won't be flying today." He shook off his wings.

The 5'8 golden dragon grabbed his cellphone from the nightstand and texted his best friend that he was on his way to class. Tossing his phone on the bed, he walked over to the shower to turn on the hot water. The spray came down cold. "Well, isn't that just dandy..." He stepped into the downpour all the same and washed up. After finishing and drying off, he outfitted himself in his usual attire: black skinny jeans, a red sleeveless hoodie, and a pair of black tinted aviators.

After a standard rice and eggs breakfast Ain opened the newspaper, immediately noticing the column piece: "Today December 20, "The Quiet One"; the most feared serial murderer, will be transported to a Detention Facility with heightened state of the art security, in an undisclosed location. The general public has nothing to fear, our highly decorated General Ryan is overseeing this operation and has a record of 25 successful transfers handled without any delays or mistakes."

Some moments later, Ain got up and left the table. He walked towards the door, leaving out of his tiny shack. As he walked toward school, a light drizzle picked up. "SCREW THIS, I'M FLYING!" He roared out, watching as small feral avian creatures took off in a scatter. He began a brisk walk that gradually picked up into a jog. His wings stretched out in preparation as he found himself starting to skip every few steps. Finding the right footing, he planted down and propelled himself vertically, flapping his wings. Within a few short moments he ascended into the sky. His attention was at the widening ground below him. "HAHA!" He glanced at his watch, eyes widening at the realization that if he wasn't at school in 30 minutes, he'd have to face detention on his first day.

As he approached the Military Academy Ain focused on an area to land in. "I can do this." The adolescent male had very limited experience in proper flight control. He began his descent toward his landing point, ceasing his flapping to glide down. Just as he drew closer toward the spot, a strong gust of wind kicked up, tipping him off balance and forcing him to flop on his back against the ground. The crash left him winded; he lied on the ground gasping for breath. "Damn, I hope no one saw that." He rolled over and shuddered his wings and brushed off his back.

_ Who am I kidding... _ He pulled on the backpack straps as he stood up once more before glancing at his watch again. Immediately he bolted off, not wasting any of the 5 minutes he had left to get to class, which was conveniently across campus. With just a minute to spare, Ain was in front of room 25, History class. As soon as he opened the door, Ain became the center of attention. Most notably, the pale skinned human instructing the class had his eyes on him. "Glad you decided to show up Mr. Blake."

Ain glanced around the room, staring back at the watchful eyes on him. "Sorry... I hadn't realized how far away home is from school..."

Mr. Genz gave a solemn nod, "Well, you're here anyway, take your seat."

The dragon located his best friend, who had saved him a seat. He walked over towards him and seated himself besides the fox. "How was summer break?" Ain looked past his blue wolf friend, gawking at the vixen in the seat next to him. "Luna to Ain, I asked how was summer break."

"Huh, oh. Summer break was good, all I did was p-practice my flying skills." He answered somewhat absently. "Who is that sitting next to you?"

Zach shook his head slightly before introducing the two. "Vivien, this is Ain. Ain, Vivien."

The love struck dragon began losing himself to fantasies, responding "Hello beautiful..."  _ Did I really just say that?!  _ He shook away the thoughts and glanced around the classroom, noticing once again; all eyes were on him. He felt himself shrinking internally as the judgmental eyes of his peers remained on him. He cleared his throat, shyly correcting himself. "err... I mean, nice to meet you Vivien..." He gave a slight nervous chuckle before lowering his head down to the table to hide his shame.

The duration of the lecture consisted of a brief overview of the galactic history, Luna's role and the history of Earth. During the discussion of Loina's importance, Zach glanced over at Ain. The dragon lazily slumped his face against an open palm, staring down at the tabletop. The blue wolf grinned devilishly, leaning in and waiting. Ain felt his friend's stare and slowly turned to glance at him. Once Ain's pupils fell on him, Zach's grin widened and he put on the smoothest voice he could muster, "Hello Beautiful..." He tried to retain his composure, finding difficulty stifling his laughter. Ain gave him a disinterested grimace, taking a deep inhale and puffing smoke through his nostrils directed at him. The wolf coughed, fanning away the pollution. "Come on man, that's not fair!" Ain turned back, facing the instructor again, shaking his head. "Hey, ya know I'm just messing with you."

"...shut up Zach." A slight smirk came upon his face as he continued shaking his head.

"Come on... that was priceless." Zach nudged him.

"Was not." Ain growled under his breath.

"Is that something you'd like to share, Mr. Blake, Mr. Matthews?" The two focused on their instructor, who was not very patient with disruptions.

"Uhh... n-no..." They both replied.

"Come now, it must be important." Mr. Glenz crossed his arms and patiently waited.

Ain and Zach glanced at another, then back at Mr. Glenz, and back at each other. "Uhh..."

"We don't have all day, out with it so we can move on."

Ain cleared his throat. "Well... Zach was mocking me." He quickly put.

The human shook his head. "Mocking will not be tolerated in this class. Zach, what did you say?"

Zach nervously scratched the back of his head, biting his lip. "Hello Beautiful...."

A wave of giggling and snickering came over the class. Mr. Glenz shook his head. "Do not allow this to happen again, back to the lesson..." He turned back to the lecture and continued where he left off.

The dragon and wolf sank back into their seats, Ain shooting daggers at his friend and mouthing "You did this."

After lecturing was finished, the remaining 30 minutes of the session was left to complete classwork. Zach being the prodigy that he was, finished his work within 10 minutes and dedicated the rest of the time to helping Ain with his work.

"I'm going back home to practice flying the plane in the rain after this." Zach slowly looked up at him, squinting.

"It's the first day of school and you aren't even going to stay the whole time?" A thought crossed his mind. "If you're leaving, then I'm coming too, to make sure you don't kill yourself. Heck, you're my only friend."

"Fine you can come, but you're riding on my back." The first period bell rang, dismissing the students to brunch. Ain walked to the cafeteria with Zach to get something to eat. They were provided with pancakes, syrup, and a choice of coffee, juice, or milk. Ain took black coffee and Zach chose orange juice. After sitting down and finishing their meal, the bell for the second period rang. "Ready? I can just leave without you."

"Oh no you don't. You are not leaving me, and I don't care if I get hurt." He got up and walked alongside Ain toward the school's entrance. Little did they know, they were being watched by a wolf.

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

A wolf pulled her cellphone out, pressed a button and began, "I'm in pursuit of the subjects leaving the campus."

The voice on the other line responded. "Don't jeopardize this mission by blowing your cover Glare." With that said, she ended the call and shoved the phone back in her pocket.

She hastily made way to her stationary motorcycle and took off after the two, shortly after starting it up. Glare tracked Ain and Zach, recognizing their destination was the Military owned private hangar. Her hand clutched the throttle tighter to cover more distance in order to catch the two, just as she was closing in her phone rang. She answered the call without taking her eyes off the airborne duo. "Who is this?"

An unfamiliar voice responded. "Heya, just a fair warning: you're gonna wanna let the dragon and wolf go and leave the hangar." Glare narrowed her eyes and glanced at the caller I.D. The call came from General Ryan.

She held the phone out, staring at the screen incredulously. "What did you do to Ryan?!" Without so much as allowing the chance for the person on the other end to respond she hung up and shoved the device back into her pocket. Her attention fixated back to the sky only to find Ain and Zach had already touched down. She spotted the two heading into the spacecraft. "Damn it!" Glare growled, face palming herself as she sped toward the vessel.  _ If my hunch is correct, Ryan's been murdered and that was The Quiet One... and he's in there. Wait..  _ Her eyes widened. She gripped at the throttle, speeding towards the private hanger. As she approached, it dawned upon her that The Quiet One was more than likely within the stationed vessel on the strip; it also appeared that Ain and Zach had boarded. A deep groan fell from her at the realization.  _ Damn it...  _ Once within the hanger, she parked her motorcycle and ran towards the grey colored jet. "HOLD ON!"

-

Just as Ain was mid-ignition, he heard the command from outside from the female. The dragon stopped, turning to Zach. "Wait here, I'll handle this." He opened the rear hatch and walked back to see who it was. " _ Sorry  _ for skipping  _ school _ ..." He let out before noticing a black and red she-wolf running at him with a 9mm laser pistol trained on him. He quickly drew his hands up at either side of his head, with wide eyes. "Uhhh....."

"What do you think you're doing?" Her eyes narrowed at him. "You know damn well you shouldn't be out here on your own!"

"Ya see... about that-" before he could finish a crashing  _ ka-thoonk _ cut him off. They both turned to the spacecraft. "Zach...? ZACH?!" He quickly pivoted, pausing when he heard Glare's pistol cock.

"Whatever you're thinking about doing... don't." Glare trained her weapon towards his thighs. "Ain... listen to me." The dragon clenched his fists.

_ I can't stand by while he's in danger...  _ He growled lowly, more to himself.

"You can't run around here, playing with the spaceship Ain. This is real and lives are at stake."

Ain puffed smoke through his nostrils. "I don't have time for this..."

"WHat was that?!" She casually leaned closer. "Please, enlighten me on what you don't have time for."

Ain snapped his neck around, turning to the wolf, eyes narrowed and lips curled into a frown. "Time for this, Glare!" He darted off into the ship's interior, leaving her outside.

Glare blunk idly, taken aback by what had just transpired. Her pistol lowered as she growled to herself, before following him inside. "Ain!"  _ Damn it all to hell, if The Quiet One doesn't kill him, I will. _

Ain returned to the cockpit, staring at the two wolves seated before him. He sized up the two, looking to the red eyed white male, then to the white haired, winged grey wolf. "Which one of you punks messed with my friend?" His pupils darted between the two. "yOu killed him, didn't you...? Why'd you do it, he was a wolf just like you. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!"

The white wolf smirked at him. "Look kid, you better take a seat otherwise you'll end up like your friend." He turned the key starting up the engine. At the revving of the engines, Glare hopped aboard. She crept up toward the cockpit and kept her gun trained on the white wolf.

"What.. did you do.. to Ryan?" She glanced over at the winged wolf then back to him. "Did you kill him Derek, or did your friend over here?" Her aim turned to the winged wolf. "You do it?" Her hands trembled with her growing rage. "...I should just kill you Derek.." Her finger squeezed at the trigger.

Derek drew out his energy sword, pointing the glowing red blade at the wolf. "Now now, you know better than to try that with me." His smirk grew into a cocky grin as he turned his attention to the female. "I could slice you down before that bullet even leaves the barrel." Glare growled, slowly releasing the pressure on the trigger. The white wolf chuckled. "Good girl. Now, take a seat or I take your life." He gave a sadistic smile. "Choice is yours, sweetheart."

Glare backed off, lowering her weapon and sitting beside a grumpy Ain.

Derek rose up, standing at around 6'4". He turned to his  _ partner _ ~ "I'mma check on the hostages, start up the ship. And make sure they don't try anything Rocko." He walked off into the corridor.

"Oh, I won't." Rocko replied, following with a sinister laugh as he reached for his utility belt, pulling off a grenade.

Glare glanced around the interior, looking to the two empty seats behind them. Her pupils followed along the black decals within the cockpit, down to the blue carpeting below. Her eyes fell onto Rocko, who casually twirled the grenade in his hand. She figured he wouldn't hesitate to detonate the explosive if either of them made any sudden movements. The wolf sunk back into her seat, leaning toward Ain. "We wouldn't be stuck in this predicament if you'd've just listened to me."

The dragon turned to her, throwing his hands up. "How was I supposed to know that this would happen?!"

Rocko glanced back at them through the corner of his eye for a moment, shaking his head with a chuckle.

Seeing the winged wolf firing up the engines in preparation for take off, Glare quickly formulated a scheme to get themselves out of the predicament. "You should have thought about that before rushing in here!" She grabbed at the dragon's shirt collar and pulled him in, growling. "As soon as we get off of this ship I'm going to kill you."

Rocko started laughing. "Easy back there, save some fun for me."

Ain took a deep gulp, finding himself starting to sweat. "G-glare... I-I..."

She drew close to his ear and quickly whispered, "play along, I'm going to get us out of this" before giving him a few short orders. "Save it Ain!" She shoved him back into his seat and stood up, forcing out a frustrated sigh. Her claws pinched at the bridge of her snout as she shook her head. "Before anything happens, I need to know: what did Derek promise you after escaping Luna?" The wolf glanced at her once more. "Knowing him, it's more than just freedom."

He smirked. "That's really none of your damn business, but if you're  _ dying to know; _ A quarter-million."

"Hm."  _ Damn him... _

Ain drew a pocket knife and held it against Rocko's throat from behind the seat. "Step away from the machine and you won't get hurt."

"Yeah right." As the wolf jerked in the seat to try and get the knife off of him, Ain panicked, pressing the knife harder against him and incidentally slashing his neck and cheek. The wolf hissed out in pain, clenching at the opened wounds. "Gah! You cut me you bastard!"

The dragon pulled back in shock. "I didn't mean t- actually, that's what you get for moving you jerk!" He slowly maneuvered into the pilot seat.

The winged wolf growled, "Why I oughta-" Foomp. He keeled over, getting winded from the fist Glare threw, straight to his gut.

"Only I get to threaten him." She kneed him in the face, nearly breaking Rocko's nose; leaving him to fall to the floor and curl up.

Ain put the headset on and pressed the button to speak on the overcom. "Attention passengers, this is your captain Ain speaking. Derek; Rocko is dead-"

"WHAAT?!" Derek walked out from the corridor, sword drawn and hilt in a tight grip. He stepped over his partner and swiftly approached Ain. Just as he was nearing Ain panicked, taking off at a steep angle and quickly gaining altitude. The wolf stumbled backwards some steps, trying to keep upright. He tripped over Rocko losing his sword and falling flat onto his back. "Ack! Rocko what are you doing on the floor?!"

Glare used the opportunity to throw herself atop Derek to subdue the prone male. She quickly snapped handcuffs on him and interlaced the chain with another pair that she threw onto Rocko. Throwing a stiff knee into Derek's gut she sat the two back to back and used the rope from the emergency tool kit to tie them up.

-

After restraining the two canines, Glare left them on the floor groaning in pain and rushed off towards the back of the ship to find Ryan and Zach. Ain glanced back hearing the quick taps of her boots and saw she had left momentarily. "Glaaa-aaaaa and she's gone..." He let out a sigh, turning back to the open skies ahead to attempt steering them through space.

Shortly after taking off, the she-wolf picked up on low groans coming from the end of the corridor. She hurried over finding two doors one to the left and the other to the right; listening closely the groaning was coming from the door on the right and without hesitation she opened the door. The light flickered on, two bodies lied on the floor; one she easily identified as General Ryan, the other must being Zach, both of them bruised, battered, and slightly bloodied. She quickly dropped to her knees to check the wolf's pulse: steady. A sigh of relief escaped her as she helped him sit up and undid his restraints. After situating the wolf, she turned to the Rhino and roused him into consciousness with moderate effort. "Ryan, sir, get up! We're in serious danger!"

After violent shaking and resorting to slapping him mildly a few times, the General stirred awake with a grumble. "Where.. Where the hell am I?" He clenched a hand around his forehead and rubbed, shaking off his delirium with some movements. His pupils landed on the wolf slumped on the wall. "And who is he?"

Glare smirked hearing him and seeing that he at least wasn't completely out of his senses. "There's not much time to explain. We're aboard one of the private space crafts currently in flight within space. I'm sure you remember the dragon Ain, yes? This here is his good friend Zach." She turned back to the wolf and lightly smacked his face. "Hey, are you alright?"

Zach mumbled as he stirred into consciousness. "Mmrrrghh.. why do I feel so sore...?"

"Come on big guy," She helped him up, supporting him with her shoulders and wrapping an arm around him. "Let's head back to the cockpit for a full debriefing." With that said, the three made their way back to the front of the ship.

-

Meanwhile, Ain had been blindly navigating to who-knows-where trying to keep himself from having a complete panic attack.  _ Why was I left in charge with this?  _ He directed the ship left.  _ I have no idea what I'm doing...  _ He kept on.  _ What am I supposed to do about them behind me?  _ He hesitated thinking about them, unconsciously steering to the right and flying faster.  _ Okay, okay... Calm down Ain, it's not- too bad. You haven't crashed or anything... [yet]  _ He grumbled at the nagging afterthought then sighed.  _ Well... I'm not doing that bad I guess...  _ His eyes drifted to the controls.  _ Woah, I better slow down some...  _ He eased back on the throttle and pulled towards the left again.  _ There we go... Now to figure out where I'm.. going...  _ Ain's shoulders dropped. "As a matter of fact, just where.. are.. we..? _ "  _ The dragon curiously looked around for any signs of where he may have flown them to, drawing no clear conclusion. "Oh crap.. I got us lost.. Hehe...." Ain slumped back into the pilot's seat, drifting by and looking out into the vacuum with minor disappointment.

An approaching spacecraft caught his attention and he focused on the ship. The colors and sigil seemed familiar but he couldn't quite place where he knew it from.  _ Hmmm... Where have I seen ships like that...?  _ The vehicle stopped before him and a gruff voice came through the trans-comm. "You have exceeded the Interplanetary Flight Zone..."  _ Oh yeah.. I almost forgot about that.  _ "and are trespassing on Earth's Air Space."  _ Earth...?  _ "You are under orders of the Interplanetary Police to turn off your engine and cease your thrusters." Ain's eyes widened.  _ Shit!  _ He hesitated in complying but slowly killed the engines and powered down the thrusters. "Now then, I'm gonna need your license and registration, along with reason for trespassing without notice." Ain blinked idly, frozen in his seat trying to formulate a response. The hesitation made the officer uncomfortable. "Sir, I won't ask again. License, Registration, and Verification."

Ain gulped and pressed the transponder, giving a reply. "Uhhhhhhh..."

The officer impatiently cut him off. "Speak up son."

Ain fumbled over his words, not able to coherently speak a sentence and shut off his end of the communication. He panicked trying to think of how to handle the situation.

Glare, Zach and Ryan walked into the front slowly. The black wolf headed to the seat to sit down Zach while Ryan went straight for Derek. The rhino snatched Derek by his collar and raised him into a kneel before connecting a hard fist to his cheek and dropping him. The injured wolf turned with the punch and spat out blood, eyes trailing back to him without a word. He smirked and kept his composure. Glare walked over towards the bleeding Rocko and patched him up so he at least wouldn't pass out from blood loss.

Ain spun on his heels, stammering to get glare and Ryan's attention. "Uh, Gl-glare... Ryan... I uhh there's an.. I need.. help.."

Glare turned catching the last part of Ain's incoherency. "You what Ain?"

The dragon pointed to the patrol ship outside. "There's a bit of a situation I don't know how to handle." Her ears folded back.

"What did you do?! I thought you could fly this thing!"

For a brief moment Ain was astonished and in a degree of disbelief that Glare gave him some credit and trusted in his abilities, though the feeling didn't last long due to what immediately came out of his mouth. "Well, I'd fly better if my friend’s life wasn’t in danger, and I didn't have to try to explain that I don't have a license or registration to fly this to the Interplanetary Police!"

Glare turned to Ryan. "Sir, how should we go about handling the situation?"

"I'll handle the talking. Ain, you've done enough, take a seat."

The dragon wanted to retort, after quickly thinking it over he found it better that the pressure was off of him and sat in a passenger seat.

The ship jerked forward suddenly, everyone wondering what just happened. They looked out to see that the officer had used his tractor pulse beam to tow them to the Earth. All six aboard the spacecraft were preparing themselves for whatever would be thrown their way.

Upon descending Earth's Atmosphere, they took notice of the striking similarities to Luna with the exception of the higher moisture content. As they neared the Lithosphere, the officer escorting them to the precinct identified himself as Steve and informed them they should be making their return to their homeworld as soon as they finished processing their information and was cleared.

After landing in a private hangar and taken into the precinct, Ryan spoke with the chief, handing over necessary documentation and paperwork for everyone as well as informing them of his position as a General of the Military of Luna. Each of the six were screened, had their photos taken and were told they could explore the city while they were being cleared. With the security check squared away, the Loinans were given debit cards, each allocated with $5000 for them to make purchases during their temporary stay.

Steve met with them again, wishing their stay peaceful. "Hey, you guys be careful out there and hope you enjoy yourselves. There's some shady characters out there and I'd hate to hear that something happened to you." That said and done, the group hit the streets of Seattle, Washington, taking in the sights and making their way through the city.

The city seemed to have a lot to offer, none of them knowing quite where to begin with all the buildings around. Their noses picked up on a distinct smell that reminded them of the last they ate. They followed the odor to a decent sized establishment adorned with two golden arches making an "M" and the following letters behind spelling out McDonald's.

General Ryan looked inside to see an estimated 30-50 people waiting inside. He opened the glass door and led the six inside. It didn't take long for the customers to clear out in a panic, many leaving their food behind and taking off without ordering. Shrugging off the reactions Ryan, Glare, and Derek walked up to the cashier who was trying to hide behind the register. "Uh.. What do you... er- H-how can I help... you folks today..?" He barely managed to get out.

Ryan loomed over the counter. "Tell me, what are in these 'Big Macs' you have?"

The employee blinked. "Uhh.. Ground beef, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and secret sauce between three buns..."

Ryan's face shriveled in disgust. "Gross. We're taking 6 orders of medium Fillet-O-Fish meals." He demanded.

The employee quickly nodded and punched in the keys for the order. "Alright.. That brings your total to.... Forty three dollars, twenty six cents." He hesitated for a moment. "...um are you paying with c-cash.. or card...?"

The rhino took out the debit card he was issued and swiped it, bringing his budget down. The cashier handed him the receipt. The six took seats at 3 now-empty tables waiting for their food to come out. There was an awkward silence filling the restaurant, neither the human employees nor the Lunarians made conversation. Some odd ten minutes or so passed before they were called and received their food. Going back to their seats they sat down and ate.

  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

It was nearing two in the afternoon, and the group had just finished lunch. They departed the McDonalds, Glare and Ain taking lead, Derek and Rocko between them, both painfully aware that they'd be going back into solitary confinement after their return and resolving in enjoying the sun while they could, and lastly Zach and Ryan taking up the rear. The group made their way down the streets of Seattle, without direction until three teenaged humans approached them.

"Woooahh..." A very light brown skinned male let out as he was staring down Alaska. The 6 stopped and stared back at them, Ain eyeing the human over unsure of his intentions. The shaggy haired young man approached the dragon, rubbing fingers over his exposed scales. "Your suit looks so realistic!" He exclaimed in awe.

"Hey, hands off me!" Ain yelped as he jerked away from him. He frowned and dusted his arm off.

A pale skinned young woman approached now, the group studied her cautiously. "Your suits rock, you should enter the contest at the convention!" She reached out and caressed Derek's fur. He scowled and gritted his teeth, his eyes began darkening to a murderous bloody red. "Woah, color changing eyes?!" He started growling at her as she pet his fur.

Glare growled the girl. "I suggest you keep your hands to yourself, unless you want to lose your fingers."

She retracted her hand. "Wow, the character commitment is great! I love it!" She giggled. "You guys should come to Rainfurrest with us, come on." The group all gave another awkward glances before deciding to follow the humans to the hotel. The Ugg wearing girl turned back to them, "So what are your guys' names?"

The dragon spoke up. "I'm Ain, this red and black wolf here is Glare," she gave a solemn nod. "that blue and white wolf there is Derek," he glared at the humans. "the wolf next to him is Rocko, this wolf right here is my best friend Zach," he waved a hand. "and the big rhino is General Ryan," he made a stern scowl. "What are your names?

The girl smiled. "Sally." She pointed to the golden brown skinned male with shaggy hair outfitted in skater wear. "That's Eric." She pulled her arm back to stick out her thumb at the other pale skinned boy wearing a shirt with a werewolf boyfriend print on it. "That's my brother Jeff." The two humans waved in response and everyone exchanged handshakes. "Sooo... Where do you guys come from?" 

General Ryan responded. "The planet Liona ."

Sally's eyes went wide. "Oh my god! I want to hear all about your backstories-"

Ain interjected. "Maybe we can do that when we get to that when we get to..." He trailed off. "Uhhh... where are we going exactly?"

"Oh yeah, the con is at the Sea-Side hotel. It's two days long and there's all types of activities to do there; meet new people, get your 'sona drawn, purchase weapons. It's a part of this year's theme "Tactical Warfur", you can buy actual firearms so long as you have a gun license." Her eyes lit up again. "I almost forgot! On the second day towards the end of activities, there's a big contest where you show off your suit and first place prize is Five thousand dollars!" 

After an hour's worth of deliberation on planning for the hotel and convention, the group started making their way toward the con. While they were walking, Ain decided to take to the air, flapping his wings and ascending higher into the sky.

Sally's eyes glew with astonishment. "Woah! You built your wings so well!"

The dragon was too high to hear anything from down below. He took in the Seattle atmosphere, looking around the vastness. "Wow, this place is huge!" He turned and noticed the Space Needle, jaw agape. "WHAT IS THAT?!" A smile spread across his face, looking at the monument. "Why is that needle so big?!" He reached down into his pocket to retrieve his phone and snap a quick photo, immediately noticing a situation down below. He descended down below to check it out.

There were a few humans surrounding Glare, Derek, Ryan, Rocko, and Zach harassing them. Ain walked up to them. "What's going on here?"

"These suits are amazing, oh my god!"

"AAAAA!"

"Can I please get a picture?"

"I WANT TO HUG YOU!!!"

Six humans were around the four wolves, all speaking at once. A few bright lights were flashed in their faces. The humans started getting rowdier and began to get handsy. Zach was pulled into a tight hug and yelped. Glare immediately threw a fist to knock the human off of him.

"Try that again and you'll be sorry!"

There was a momentary silence that echoed in the air for a few seconds. Ain blinked idly at the scene that just unfolded. Another fist was thrown coming from one of the humans, then another, long with screaming. The humans retaliated but were met with even more force.

Derek grabbed one of the fleshy-meatbags and slung them into another, knocking the wind out of the both of the attackers then padded over to stomp on them.

Rocko delivered a kick into another one of the humans, flipped them onto their back, then promptly sat on top of them.

Ryan rushed over to stop Derek from killing the humans, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and yanking him away from the two.

"That's enough, Derek! That's not what we're here for."

Derek growled at him, eyes a murderous red again. "I'm just finishing what they started, they were asking for it!"

The two last humans ran at Glare to try to take her on. She bounded towards them, arms raised in preparation for her counter. The human to the right swung first, aiming straight for her head. She ducked and grabbed the male's arm following the direction and pulling him into the other human. As the two collided she kicked them onto the ground and snarled. "Leave if you know what's good for you." 

Ain blinked again at how quickly the event turned. "ah-uhhhh..." He shook off his stupor and walked over to Zach to check on him. "Hey, are you okay?"

His friend nodded, patting himself to be sure he wasn't missing anything. "Yeah, just wasn't expected to be grabbed like that."

Ain ruffled his hair playfully. "Good, can't have nothing happening to my best friend." He turned to the group, "Is everyone good?"

Ryan glanced at the dragon, still holding a calming down Derek. "We're fine." Ain nodded and looked over at Rocko.

The wolf gave a thumbs up, still sitting on the human. "Okaay..." He turned to Glare.

"Those guys were nothing, what's the next move?"

Sally, Eric, and Jeff approached them again. "Woah, you guys really know how to fight."

Ain swiveled around to the humans. "Oh right! Are you all alright?"

Sally nodded. "Yeah, we're good."

Ryan gave a short cough to get everyone's attention. "We should find a place to get a change of clothing, especially since we may be here a while."

Eric chimed in, "Oh there's a ROSS not too far from here."

The Loinians stared blankly at him. "Ross? What is a Ross?"

Sally cringed. "It's a clothing-"

Glare shook her head. "We know what it is. Which way is it?"

Eric continued, "Follow us!" The human trio walked off towards Ross, the Loinians followed after them. Once they all made it to the department store, everyone immediately went towards their respective sections of style.

Ain was giddy with excitement as he bumbled down the aisle trying to get to the rack, knocking down clothes with his wings. He slid clothes across the bar, admiring the many styles there were. "Look at all these clothes!" An awkward silence bubbled around him along with judgmental stares.

About half an hour passed and everyone was outfitted in new wear. Ain sported a white tank under a black hoodie with black skinny jeans and black and white Vans. Zach found himself a camouflage tee and shorts along with some camo shoes. Ryan had on a plain white tee that fit just a little tight, brown cargo shorts and white vans. Glare had on a jean jacket and blue jeans and a pair of green toms. Rocko and Derrick decided to keep their original clothes on. After paying for their clothes they all walked out.

"We're heading to the convention now guys," Ryan announced. "Let's get a move on."

Ain beamed out, heading towards the convention hall with an eager pep in his step. As the group moved on ahead, the sun was blotted out by passing thick dark grey clouds. The three humans walked behind them and idle chatter picked up. The conversations gradually grew more boisterous and intense, everyone starting to use more gestures and be more expressive as they went on. In what seemed to be no time at all, they found themselves at Seaside Hotel where the convention was hosted; walking through the doors and stepping into the lobby the Loinians fell silent.

  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

The double doors silently slid open and a blast of cold air from the convention center hit Ain, a very faint but pungent smell wafted over his nose as he walked through the door and was met by a bunch of colorful two-legged creatures. Ain tapped Zach on the shoulder.

"Do they think that we look like that?"

Ain was bewildered as he stared at the wanna be aliens walking past them. Ain had come to the conclusion that humans were weird. And to think that only few knew the existence of aliens.

Ain saw a purple and white dragon approaching him, he was mildly intrigued because they looked exactly like him. He used a form of draconic greetings which was a series of tongue clicks and a hisses.

The dragon jumped away from his greeting.

"Did you just hiss at me?" The purple dragon asked, as they narrowed their eyes at him.

Ain swallowed; he couldn't believe that they weren't a dragon he was so sure of it. Then again, he did Just meet Sally who was a "furry" whatever that was.

"Well..." He adjusted his wings. I'm making my own version of Dragon langue, and I thought it would be cool to try it out on another dragon." he put on his best fake smile.

Sally tugged on his wrist; he kept his eyes locked on the purple dragon. "They are not a real dragon." Sally whispered in his ear. " They had to get their genes changed, to look like that."

Ain softly growled at the "dragon" something seemed wrong about the process. He allowed himself to be dragged away.

"Welcome to the Safari, and I will be your tour guide." Sally said after they finished creating their badges so they could enter the main part of the con, Ain fixated on his badge as he watched miniature versions of himself dance on it. it was roughly the same size as his phone. He looked up when Sally grabbed his paw as they walked through security. It was amazing, it seemed as if the building was alive. Ain guessed that Sally wanted to give them the most adventurous tour possible. It began by riding the elevator. They entered it and the glass door hissed shut and opaque. Then Sally pressed two on the elevator pad, He heard a ding overhead. "Now we wait for the all clear," she told them, he shifted his wings excitedly, heart thumping in excitement. almost instantaneously he felt the cabin pressure change.

Ain guessed that he moved too fast as he tried to get off the elevator and his vision blurred a bit. Sally took a firm grip on his arm. "That's an easy way to pass out on your first flash step." The other humans were supporting the rest of Loinians except for Derek.

"Let me take you to my favorite Burger joint." Sally said as she finished checking out everything on the second floor Ain never wanted to leave this place. She then walked down the hotel's walkway, the walkway was packed with "furries" watching them go about their lives and started to change his perception of them. Their weird gene change and costumes started to become mundane to Ain.

As they were munching on their burger, Ain watched in amazement as the humans did not care about their manners. They were getting food everywhere and laughing really hard. He started to laugh with them but one look at Ryan and Glare's face let him know it was not ok.

"You guys ready to have more fun?" Sally asked after they finished their food, she wiped ketchup off her chin.

"No, I think we are ready to go to our hotel room" Ryan answered, taking that as a cue to get up.

"Oh, I thought we would be able to hang out longer on your first day" Eric spoke in a low voice, he leaned forward in his seat. His voice echoed what Ain was thinking.

"You haven't been traveling through space. " Ryan growled, Ain scooted back from Ryan he sensed the anger radiating from the rhino's body. Ain eyes darted around the tiny diner and was relieved that no one was paying attention.

"We can meet up later after we get settled." Ain quickly interjected, the tension in the room was beginning to reach a critical mass.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Sally awkwardly laughed. Ain breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that a man of Ryan stature wouldn't back down.

Zach and Ain waved goodbye to the humans as they stood outside the diner. He had already missed hanging out with Sally. He sighed as they walked in a different direction from the humans. "Ain, Glare and I want to check the gun shop. We can't be weaponless in a place like this." Ryan spoke to him on the way to the elevator. Ain was Muddled when Ryan said "a place like this." From what Ain gathered it seemed like a normal place.

Ain was still getting his bearings down and walked down a long hallway. They were only a few humans walking the hall and weren't paying much attention to them. "What do you mean a place like this?" Ain asked, making his voice low enough so that no one could ear hustle.

"Guess they didn't teach you about the history of Earth." Ryan sighed. "Well it all started with their American president, Kenny Jackson. He was scared of anything foreign so he decided to flex Earth's power and went to war with a bunch of different planets. The end result was putting once flourishing planets on the endangered list. Liona di-" Glare shot him a look. He just nodded to her.

"What he was going to say was that Liona hasn't always been good." Everyone's head whipped toward Derrick as he spoke coolly."What you weren't going to tell them that Liona used to help the humans simply because they hired them to help." Ain looked between Glare and Ryan questioningly while Derrick was speaking. "Why do you think that I was genetically modified."

"We created you?" Ain spoke slowly and the conversation ended once they arrived at a kid oddly smiling at them.

"So, you guys must be the ones that Steve was talking about. The kid looked Ain around age, he had braces so it forced him to speak with a lisp. He looked to be pristine for Ain's liking. His uniform was way too clean like he just got it from the dry cleaners. "Follow me." He continued to smile while speaking. Must be a cadet and looks as if he's a teacher's pet, the ones that make me look bad. "All we sell here is prop weapons, citizens aren't allowed to own energy guns." Ain rolled his eyes while tuning the cadet continued to talk. They strolled past mountains of fake weapons, while the cadet continued to ramble on about how they don't usually get visitors from different planets and from what Ain had learned he wasn't surprised.

"This is where I'll be parting ways with you." He vigorously shook Ryan's hand as they stood in front of a black door, the cadet left as it silently gilded open. Revealing a sterile white room, no bigger than a bed room. Ryan had Derrick and Rocko stand outside not wanting them to have a weapon. Military personnel greeted them and explained how this room was used in emergencies and they could take anything as long as they brought it back after their stay.

"Aren't you glad we played hooky?" Ain smiled at Zack as they were looking through the pistols.

"Yeah it is nice to leave Liona every once in a while. But I wonder what we are going to do about Derrick and Rocko?" And this was the reason why Ain liked having Zach around he was one of those smart people that knew how to enjoy life but at the same time doesn't change his personality.

"We are going to get them off this planet tomorrow." Ryan had butted himself into the conversation. "Earth is not safe, if they find out who Derrick is before we leave, they could get their weapon back."

"But he's a serial killer, why would they want him back?" Ain asked as he picked up an energy pistol and sword.

"Just for that reason, they want him to become an assassin. If they kill the leader or leaders and put who they want in charge, it's the same effect as taking over." This time Glare butted in

As she holstered her dual batons and pistols. Ain realized that they were planning to go to war with the humans. "So are we going to-"

"We'll finish this conversation in the room." Ryan cut Ain off. Ain was about to finish what he was going to say but the look in the rhino's eyes made him drop what he was going to say. He finished placing his sword in its sheath behind his back, the hilt facing his left paw. They were instantly transported before they hit a button. Everyone grabbed their pistol.

"There's Sergal on the other side."

"No, it can't be." Ryan unholstered his pistol. "This has to be a human changing their genes." Ryan sounded so sure that Ain gripped his gun with authority. He wasn't going to allow them to take Derrick.

"You don't want to do that." A deep voice growled from the other side of the elevator. That only made them grip their weapons tighter. Ain started to feel claustrophobic, his heart started to beat faster. The feeling of the walls closing start to make the middle of his left shoulder itch. He just needed to get out.

"I'm not opening that door until you put your weapons away." Ain's head looked to the far-right corner of the elevator and saw the camera. the red light on the camera stared back at him menacingly. Ryan signaled them to put away their weapon.

Finally, the doors opened, Ain rushed out first gulping fresh air. He knew that everyone was going to stare at him but he just needed to breathe. He stood erect as everyone joined him. They were in another corridor Ain sighed someone needed to talk about these passageways to humans.

"Pull yourself together soldier don't act like a babe in the woods." Ryan called out. Ain held back a smart retort and just glared back at Ryan. Glare patted Ain on the back that got him breathing normally. He knew he would have to get over his fear of small spaces but he would never forget being packed on an escape pod to escape the war ships from Earth and not knowing if they were going to get shot out the air. Ain shook his head clearing the memory from his mind. He stared at the sergal who was slightly taller than him. From what Ain could tell they had a healthy back and white coat. Ain always found it interesting that Sergals were a combination of a shark raptor and wolf, and their heads reminded him of cheese wedges.

"This is no place to talk." The sergal began to walk down the passageway. Ain looked around and it was empty then took a whiff of the air and got the faintest smell of a human around a month old. Follow me." The sergal quickened his pace.

"There's no one here." Ryan called out. "The last human was a few weeks ago." Confirming what Ain already knew. The sergal ignored them and continued his speedy escape, Ain felt for the sergal he was just paranoid it reminded Ain when he first got to Liona.

They entered the Sergal room but Ain wouldn't call it a room it was more like a control center there where at least 20 computer monitors running a constant feed of the lobby and a few of the other main rooms, and there was a fine layer of filth covering the ground of food wrappers and such, there was only one piece of furniture; It was a green saggy couch, Ain had never seen an inanimate object show so much emotion.

"Sorry bout that, the name is Raine." Raine rubbed the black fur on top of his head sheepishly. "I know I kidnapped you, but I had to. They were going to play you into a trap."

Ain turned Zach and mouth the word trap. Zach shrugged his shoulder in response.

"What trap?" Glare asked as she stared at the sergal. "We would have picked up on something." She said mainly speaking to Ryan.

"Those weren't kids you were talking to, and that fight you had was staged." The sergal sat at the desk and rolled the film back on the center monitor. Ain gritted his teeth as he watched the humans that they had lunch with talk to some military personnel outside of the burger joint they ate at. Ain unholstered his energy pistol it fit comfortably into his paw; he pulled the trigger and nothing happened. "They gave us props." Ain growled as everyone besides Raine stared at him. They had fooled them. Payback is a female dog.

"Don't worry I thought something like this would happen." Raine got up and walked into a room and closed the door. Ain couldn't get a read from the sergal he was so scatterbrained.

Ain eyes opened when Zach sat in the sergal's chair. "What do think you-" Zach cut Ryan off before he could scold the wolf.

"What's our room number?" Zach asked as he typed a series of commands on the computer.

"1267, why?" Glare recovered the quickest. Ain still couldn't get over what his best friend did that was out of character. He walked behind the chair, he watched as their room came up on the monitor. There were more than 20 people shuffling around the room, moving furniture and placing down microphones and various other observation tools.

"We can't stay there, we won't make it through the night." Ain said as he watched them take their privacy.

"It's actually quite simple." Raine spoke as he rolled out a rack with grey one-piece suits that reminded him of a wetsuit that was covered with chest, arm and leg plating, Ain's eyes lit up when he saw one of them had wing covers. "You guys are going to stay in my spare room, at least until you figure out how to leave." Ain only counted four suits guessing Rocko and Derek wouldn't get one.

"I made you some armor and modified some weapons."

"What about me and Rocko?" Derrick asked as he stepped up to the sergal, they were standing nose tip to nose tip. This was what Ain was worried about.

"I don't know murderer what about you."

Ain heard a faint growl coming from Derrick.

"I was under the control of two governments cheesecake." Derrick spit the insult back at the sergal.

"Doesn't change the fact that sergals are on the brink of extinction because of what you did you monster." Ain watched as Derrick's claws began to change color and elongate. He waved to Ryan who was directly across from Ain.

Ryan grabbed the wolf and slammed him into a wall away from them. Ain turned back to Raine. "Are you alright?" Ain asked as he placed his scaled paw on the sergals shoulder. 

"Yeah, I just had to get that off my chest." Sergal adjusted his glasses on his face. "You sure you want to be part of the military, it seems you are better with the peacekeepers, you have a level of humanity that I haven't seen in a long time."

"Yeah I know but I have to prove to my late mother that the military can do good." Ain turned his head to Zach. "Isn't that right?"

""Yeah we are going to change the universe one planet at a time." Zach responded.

"Well I want you two to think about something. The sergal adjusted his glasses again. "What will it cost you? Everything has a price no matter how small you think it is."

Ain was about to respond but Raine cut him off. "Don't say anything just think." Rainie said as he handed them room cards and the rack with the armor on them.

  
  
  



	5. Chapter 5

The wing cover lightly squeezed his wings causing slight discomfort as Ain adjusted the setting on his armor from his forearm. After a few moments of tweaking he finally got it to a right amount of pressure. He opened his wings and the black casing over his wings opened and exposed a thin metal membrane. He closed them back and they folded straight against his back which would usually be uncomfortable but his wings were resting against the soft padding of the coverings. The armor adjusted to his body and fit over him like a second layer of scales, it was rubber like material in how bent with his movement but at the same time felt tough like steel. The armor came with an assortment of features he was only interested in adjusting the colors so he changed the outer portion to gold and the midsection to black. 

"Are you finished?" Glare called from the other side of the door. Ain splashed water on his scales making them glisten. 

"You happy now?" Ain asked as he finished putting his gun on his waist,it was held by a magnetic holster and placed his sword against his back. 

"The comms are on so we can hear what you're hearing and if need be see what you're seeing." Ryan said as he handed Zach and Ain a set of contacts and a small black ear piece, he placed a small white patch in his hand.  
"This is a truth patch. It's extremely experimental and we don't know what the effects are but this will come in handy. Just place it somewhere on her body and she should tell the truth." Ryan looked Ain dead in his eyes. "Remember this is-"

Zach cut him off. "Strictly for intel, make sure the enemy doesn't suspect we know anything and try to find out what they know about us." Everyone nodded in agreement. 

"Don't forget if the situation gets out of control we will be there." Glare warned as they walked out the door, Ain rolled his eyes. They've only been together for a few days and Glare reminded him of his mom.   
"Looks like we have to seduce our host" Ain giggled to Zach, as they loaded into the elevator. He heard a gasp from the other side of his ear piece. He had already forgotten that they were listening on the other side.   
They took a short elevator ride to the room they were supposed to stay in. Zach touched his paw stopping him before he opened the door. "Remember we cannot speak of anything that might compromise the mission." Ain gritted his teeth yeah he wasn't the smartest person on the team but that didn't mean that he didn't know what to do.  
They sat on the bed, it was firm nothing compared to the ultra soft bed in the room that they were staying in. He texted Sally. They heard people running back and forth throughout the hotel room. 

"I wonder when Glare and Ryan are going to get back from their recon mission." Ain winked at Zach as he spoke. "They said they might be gone for the rest of the night."  
"I can't believe they left us." Zach took it a step further. "We don't know what to do, we're only rookies." 

After a couple minutes of going back and forth explaining what they were planning on doing with Zach there was a knock on the door. Ain clicked a button on the door revealing a pink and black sergal he clicked it again and the glass opaque as he opened the door. 

"Glad you could make it." The sergal head looked realistic and Ain had a hard time looking away. "It looks so real. Ain put his paw out to feel the material it was soft but nowhere close to the real thing.

"Alright enough gawking at my fursuit." Sally joked as she took the head off. "Are your parents gone?" Sally asked as she looked around the room.

"You mean our friends?" Ain asked as he moved a couple of his dreads out of his face. 

"No they definitely seemed more of the parent type or like a commanding officer." Sally said. "And what's with the armor? It looks real. She looked Ain over. He had already figured that she was going to ask this question, so he preemptively dulled the shininess of his armor.  
"It's carbon fiber." He responded almost too quickly. He placed his hands in the neckline.  
"Ask her where she is planning on taking you guys." Ain heard Ryan's voice come through the tiny earpiece. 

"Where are you planning on taking us?" Ain blurted out. Not the smoothest way to ask a question but it would have to do. 

"Oh it's a little rave that's happening in the bottom of the hotel." Sally answered  
Ain eyebrows slowly raised, hopefully it wasn't like the parties back at home because that could compromise the mission. But before he could even protest he heard Zach agree to the meeting. Ain made eye contact with Zach and shook his head. Zach shrugged his shoulders in response.  
They left the room, Ain felt his heart rate slow when outside the room it was super hard to guard his words and the idea that humans were watching them made his scales itch. The more they walked the more they talked and it felt like they were getting close to their first clue.  
"So Sally what exactly do you do? Ain asked and tried to sound as genuine as possible.  
She paused obviously thinking about it. "I...uh...I work for the military." She finally squeezed out as they loaded into the elevator. "What about you two?"  
Ain nodded at Zach while her back was turned, to let him know that he would let him talk for them. "how interesting we also work for the military, or at least we are training to." Zach laughed.  
"Nice work kid now get her to admit that they have been watching us. something that wouldn't know without following us.  
"Funny how life works." Sally laughed. "what are you guys planning on doing in the military?"  
This time Ain spoke up. "working with the peace corps helping planets get back on their feet after a war." Ain was being as passive aggressive as he could without them. "What about you? Ain forced a smile at her.  
"Oh I've wanted to work as a spy, something that always excited me was being someone else besides myself and hence being a furry." as She said this the elevator doors opened. He was getting used to flash travel. His heart began to pound as he placed the patch in his hand. What he was about to do was going to go against his moral code but he didn't want to be here longer than he needed to.

The room was dark with slowly pulsing lights that went with the beat of the music. The room was moving with bodies and as Ain and Zach stared around the room out of the corner of his eye he saw Sally grab his hand, he felt the patch get warm, she pulled him away. They quickly disappeared deeper into the party, Ain walked into the room and it was instantly hot and reeked of alcohol making him queasy. He used his broad shoulders to create space as they walked, the music was low enough to hear people talking around him. He saw an orange and white fox and his heart began to race and stopped him in his tracks, but the person removed their mask. Ain breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Thanks for showing us this amazing place." Ain lied. "We love our room."  
"Yeah you're welcome." Sally continued to drag him past people.." It was easy getting you into that room. We had to get you comfortable to get your guards down." She looked at him slightly confused.

"Oh you're wondering why you can't stop yourself from lying?" Ain asked him to show her his paw with the patch on it. "I could ask you any question, like what do you think of me? Or what are we planning for us?"  
Ain almost laughed as he watched her try and fight not saying anything but to no avail "I know this is weird coming from a human but you are cute and I just wanted to dance with you." Sally said.

Ain wished he could have been surprised he wished that he didn't see this coming. But he did and he wasn't even going to entertain the idea of them being together."Why are you after us." Nothing more than business, He wiped the smile off of his face.

. "Derrick belongs to us, we created him." Sally whispered into his ear.

"Yeah you created a murdering machine." Ain growled into her ear. "He needs to go to prison." 

"We have this whole place bugged so if you're planning on leaving then think again." Sally chuckled into his ear. ""We have been watching you since you got here and once we found out where you are staying then it's game over for you and your friends."

"Zach and Ain get out of there." Glare shouted through the mic. 

Ain released Sally and made his way to the elevator. His heart started to race no matter where they were going to let Derrick get taken tomorrow. As he was lost in thought he didn't see the small figure standing in front of him until he walked into them.

"My God, Ain is that you?" He heard a light regal accent come from the figures mouth. He quickly ripped his ear piece out and turned it off. This day was going from bad to worse in a matter of minutes.

Ain crossed his arms across his chest. "And what did I do to earn the honor of speaking to the prince?" Ain stood at his full height and the scent of fox immediately hit his nose.  
The Prince of Hozon was standing before him he was wearing long silk scarf that was gold and a silk shirt that was crisp red and gold trimming, it brought out the color in of his orange fur color, the shirt looked as if it detracted dirt it was fresh and shining even in the dim lighting and he wore white pants that was the same color of his chest fur. His lips arched into a smirk, a look that Ain knew not to trust.  
Oh don't be like that hun." The prince of Hozon got a little closer as the music changed to a energetic tune. He felt the prince's wander over him like he was a slab of meat.  
"Not a chance Dylan." Ain growled. "I will never forget what you did when we dated."  
"Who is this?" Ain heard a voice come from behind him. He turned and seen Zach approaching.  
Shit this is not good.

"Uh this is the prince of Hozon who is leaving now." Ain fumbled over his words. To his disappointment neither bit. Ain sighed. "This is my ex." he pointed at Dylan who he dated in high school, he had been fooled into doing so many things that got him into a lot of trouble because of how in love he was with the fox but no longer.  
"Ah you dated the prince." Zach sounded a bit confused. "like as in the King's son."  
"Yup that tends to be how it works." Dylan growled at Zach, and Ain let out an audible groan. "The dragon was sated for a while but he decided that I was a no good lying piece of-"  
"You shut your mouth we are leaving." Ain cut off Dylan smoke at this point was spilling out of his mouth. "You are just like your father, it's disgusting. Ain growled at Dylan. "To think that you're better than everyone and you can do whatever you want is going to get you killed." Ain tried to cut him with his words, as he grabbed Zach arm and lead them to the Elevator.  
"Well just be prepared for tomorrow anything honey because anything could happen." Dylan gave a slight chuckle as Ain as they got on to the elevator with. This left him with a sour taste in his mouth. He knew Dylan and his father. They were capable of doing some serious damage and it shook Ain to core.  
As they traveled up the elevator choosing to take the old one that actually went up floors. Ain was silent; he was fighting back tears as best he could. Zach came over and hugged him. He began to cry hard wiping his salty tears on his friend's shoulder.  
"What did he do to you?" Zach asked as he patted Ain on the back. As Ain let his arms hang at his side.  
"He promised me a whole lot but in return I had to do and steal things for him." Ain’s voice cracked. He hated appearing weak but he couldn't pull himself together.  
"Oh man that's rough." Zach sighed. "Next time I see him I'll give him a piece of my mind."  
That made Ain wonder if he would see Dylan again. Ain made a decision if he did he would let the bastard know what he did to him and how it made him feel. He had to make peace with what happened to him, he never got to do so because of the attack on Hozon.  
"You got it buddy." Ain smiled, Zach always raised Ain mode no matter how bad he felt.

"What happened?" Glare sitting on the couch of their presidential suite. "Your lines went dead after we said get back here." 

Ain orange eyes made contact with Zach steel gray eyes pleading him not to say anything.  
"They must have scrambled our signals." Zach responded quickly. Ain breathed a sigh of relief. 

Their COs nodded their heads. "All you've done good now for us to step in." Ryan spoke as he stood in the middle of the room. "We have to leave tomorrow and I'm not going to sugar coat it, this is the hardest escape that I've pulled off and it's only going to work if we are all corporate and work together." His eyes settled on Rocko and Derrick.

"We are sticking to a buddy system." Glare joined Ryan in the center of the room. "I'll be leading team B which includes Derrick and Ain and Ryan will take the others." Ain sighed in relief as it was easier dealing with Gare but he stared Derrick something about the white wolf that rubbed him wrong. 

"Since Zach and Derrick are the same height then we can bait and switch them." Ryan said. 

"How are we planning on fooling them with something so simple?" Ain raised his hand and asked. 

"We have to scramble their signals and you guys will be leaving out of a back door out of the basement and hopefully we can leave out the front." 

"We could always go through and do it commando style." Derrick chuckled from the seat next to him. "I'm basically immortal. 

"How much I want to test that theory out we have rookies that have not been cleared for a full out assault." Ryan stared at Derrick. 

"At this point these two should get a room." Ain quietly chuckled to Zach. 

With that said everyone was dismissed to get so rest. Ain was laying next to Zach on the bed, he looked up at the ceiling. He wondered if he would survive the next day.


	6. Chapter 6

They were currently heading down the dimly lit elevator that rocked and creaked with every floor it made Ain head swim. He blinked his eyes and tried to refocus, he looked at Glare, she had a laser focus look, her hand was tight around her weapon but not a death grip.

"Remember we don't know how long we have till they catch wind of the video loop so get out of here as fast as we can." Glare spoke sternly.

They spent most of the morning planning their escape and looking at all possible escape routes and only one put them out the door before anyone could raise alarm. Then Ain was reminded of his meeting with Raine, the black and white sergal told him to avoid an orange and white wolf or all would be lost. Ain didn't know how to process the fact that he would be running into Dylan again

Like a flip of the switch the lights went out and the elevator stopped and the emergency stop light cascaded the room in a blood red. Ain mind began to race and so did his heart. He began to tap the smooth buttons trying to get the elevator to move. He began to breathe hard, how could anyone be comfortable in these airless coffins?

"What's the matter hatchling afraid of the dark?" Derrick grabbed Ain's shoulder which made him flinch.

"N...no." Ain muttered lowly. He stopped pressing the floor buttons and stepped back.

Derek placed his paws on the door and started to peel it back revealing one of the lower floors. As they squeezed through the door. Ain realized that the whole floor was dark and not even the emergency lights were on, he played around with the settings on his armor and found the settings for lights two beams of LED lights came shooting out of his chest to the floor below. People were running out of their rooms.

"Everyone stay calm and stay in your rooms." Glare shouted. "We are military personnel and we will find out what's happening. But in order for us to do that we need you to be out of our way." The few people that paused what they were doing and slowly retreated back into their respective rooms.

Ain tried to get into contact with Zach but with no luck. He pulled out his cell phone and there was a red x where there would normally be bars signifying service, he showed Glare.

"This is an attack." Glare said as she slowly pulled her gun off of her magnetic holster. "Looks like I have to take the training wheels off of you but you have to listen to me. Do I make myself clear cadet."

Ain felt the fiber of his being explode in happiness. He stood up straighter and saluted at Glare. He couldn't fight the smile that slowly etched itself onto his face. "Ma'am yes ma'am you have made yourself clear."

"Okay, now we have to find Ryan and the rest then figure out what's going on. Glare started moving forward. Ain gripped his gun tight following in close formation with her. His heart was pounding."

"You okay hatching?" Derrick laughed again.

Glare stared at him. "Shut up Derrick or I'll make you." She growled in canine.

"Yeah shut up." Ain responded in canine felt his heart slow down.

Derrick and Glare both turned to him. With a shocked expression.

"Where did you learn that boy?" Glare asked.

_ Shit. " _ Erm...I picked it up in Hozon."Ain quickly responded, he saw a door sign that had a picture of stairs on it. A light bulb went off in The dragon's head. "We should take the stairs."

Glare nodded her head "good plan. We will figure out how you can speak canine later."

He was glad they weren't pushing him to figure out how he learned canine because he wasn't ready to explain his sexuality. He pushed through the door semi distracted. As the door opened he almost fell, Glare pulled on his waist.

"What do you think you're doing cadet." She shouted at him as his heart began to race. He looked out and saw a whole section of stairs had been missing. His heart lurched as he looked all the way down and saw that bits and pieces of the stairs were missing and that most of the stairway had been rusted.

"I can fly." Ain huffed, just to prove himself he took a couple of steps back and ran through the door across the gap. As he felt himself start to fall he allowed his body to take over, his wings opened and he started to drift down.

He hummed on his way down, as he kept descending he realized how far down it was to the ground floor he had a chance to hum out one of his favorite songs as he lazily fell. He couldn't believe that Glare would forget something silly.

When he arrived on the ground it was completely different from the other floors, it was cold and deadly silent. He noticed claw marks as he began to push the door open to the first floor, he took a hesitant step back. something was out there and he didn't want to face it alone. He took off his gold helmet and took a whiff of the air and the only thing he could smell was human.

He felt a chill run down his back as he waited for Glare and Derrick, he pulled out his sword and held out in front of him as he pressed his back against the wall waiting for anything to come out. the stillness in the air shook him to the core he knew that something would come through that door at any time.

He heard four foot steps bounding down the last pair of stairs. Ain remand still. as they arrived at the foot of the stair, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I told you to follow me." Glare growled at him, then her expression softened when she noticed his facial expression. "What's wrong?"

He pointed to the long claw mark ingrained in the wall. He watched as Glare inspected the wall. She motioned to Derrick who was still in his street clothes. Ain watched through silted eyes.

"Hey kid we are about to move but I'm not getting a read on anything so stay beyond the door." Derrick called to after opening the door."

Ain slowly approached the door, placing his helmet back on. As he walked through the door he noticed that the air was still nothing moved and it was dead quiet. Glare signaled for them to move forward. The farther they moved into the room the harder Ain started to breathe he just wanted to jet out the hotel but he forced himself to stay settled.

He glanced around the lobby looking for the nearest exit. And his eyes locked on to a pool of blue ooze. He took a step forward squatting down and inspecting it,he felt chills going down his back, this was familiar in some way he removed his helmet again to try and get a good look at it.

"Ain get up and get your ass over here." Glare called to him turning her back on the door towards the exit. "We have to get out of here now."

Ain ignored her and heard a faint  _ whirr.  _ He cocked his head to the side. Then the room exploded into excitement. Three lizards popped over the service desk. They were green with jet black bulky armor that covered everything except their faces they were raptor like in appearance.

Ain was confused why they didn't show up on the radar but he would have to worry about that later. They approached them with their weapons drawn, their guns were as long as their forearms. Ain looked at the exit that was slightly to the left of the lizards. they would have to kill them. Ain fumbled his gun as he pulled it out, he felt sweat drip down his brow making it hard to see. He began to back away.His chest began to hurt as he kept breathing hard. He didn't want to die here.

Ain watched as Glare quickly fired off shots with her rifle making them dodge out of the way. Ain wanted to do something but he wasn't sure what to do. He just stood there with his gun pointed out but not sure of what to do. if he made the wrong move he would get scolded by Glare but if he did nothing he would get scolded by Glare.

He watched on as Derrick jumped on one heading back towards the service desk. Ain was ready to see blood but he saw something inky and blue started to leak out. He just stared at it, the ink pooling out. He was tempted to move closer but his legs wouldn't allow him to so he just stood there.

"get behind the service counter if you're not going to do anything." Glare shouted as she ducked behind the lounge chair. Ain snapped out his thoughts and quickly jumped over the counter and hid.

he heard a metallic roar, that's when it clicked. He peeked his head from around the corner and saw that a part of its face had been melted off from Glare's weapon and showed exposed metal and wiring.  _ Robots _ ? This was wrong; it was still firing at her.

Even with missing parts it was still fighting not showing any signs of giving up. He brought up his pistol, and took aim at it. His heart beat was going crazy, he took a couple of shaky breaths and squeezed the trigger. A red orb shard came shooting out and nailed the lizard between the eyes making them fall over. "Don't kill the last one I need them." Ain called as he pulled his sword off his back. He jumped over the desk.

Derrick pinned the last one down.

"What are you planning on doing kid?" Derrick asked as he backed away from the bot.

Ain bent down next to it. He inspected it, it had amazing detail it could fool anyone into thinking it was the real deal. "Can you talk?" Ain asked softly, a part of him wanted it to talk.

"Yes." A metallic voice responded that made me take a step away. "Ain I have an important message from my king. He wants you to m know no matter what you do that you'll never beat him.

Ain sank his sword through the lizard's head powering it down. It was without a doubt Dylan who was "Their master" he was always into role playing. He sheathed his sword.

"I know  _ who  _ is attacking." Ain raised up to one knee. "It's Hozen, seems like they're trying to get revenge." He messed around with the settings on his wrist finding a x-ray mode he scanned the body finding these strangely shaped crystals located in it back. it sparked his curiosity

"Why would they do that? Derrick asked squatting next to Ain.

"I have two theories," Ain flipped the body over, which was heavy which didn't surprise Ain from the metals it looked like it was made of. took a switchblade to access it's back panel. "Either they found a way to defeat the human in war which everyone knows would be literally impossible. Or they are taking something back."

"Yeah they are definitely here for something or they would have declared war." Glare interjected.

Ain pulled out its power source; it was small but washed the room in a deep blue. Ain stared in awe; he had never seen anything so powerful in his life. It was almost humming to him, it seemed to react to him. No that couldn't be the case. He peeled off his glove and to his surprise his gold scales had started to turn blue. His knees went weak as he quickly placed his glove back on. "What have I done?" He muttered to himself.

"Yeah I should hold on to this." Ain cleared his throat and placed it in his tail bag.

They walked out into what looked like a scene out of a disaster movie. The sky was grey almost black and it looked as if it wasn't coming from the clouds. fires had been started, some buildings had been engulfed in flames. But other than the clacking of flames nothing else was moving when the car was frozen in place. They were humans everywhere and just as many lizard people were chasing them. Ain sank to his knees. They were planning to wipe this city out.

"Ain looked across the street and didn't see anything his heart started racing. Where was the rest of their group? Then three white blips came on to his radar on the right of his visor. He opened his wings and the vents at the bottom part of the wing covers opened. Ain gentled hovered into the air.

"Can I go scouting ahead?" Ain asked as he pulled his assault energy rifle off his back. He couldn't just sit around he needed to do something. the small white rectangular weapon expanded into a long rifle that fit into the groove of his gloves perfectly, it hummed to life as soon as he put his hand on the grip.

"Yes, but do not engage if it's not them." Glare sighed as she tried to fix her communication device.

Ain took off flying with his weapon pointed at the ground he wasn't going to get caught off guard. He watched as the dots got closer. He kept tight with the building; he didn't want to be caught in the open. He looked down and his heart sank. It wasn't them, it was Sally and she was being attacked by four lizards. Ain brought his rifle up and placed his finger on the trigger he felt it power up. He aimed and fired hitting the one furthest from him. He slowly landed on the sidewalk. Sally stared at him as the other lizards hid behind a car. She was still in her civilian clothes.

"So you haven't left yet?" She was still visibly upset.

He handed her his pistol. "I see you're in trouble." He changed his setting to X-ray. He noticed that they were hiding towards the front of the car. "Why don't you have any gear on?" Ain asked.

"We are out of commission at the moment. Sally squinted her eyes as she continued. "We rely on a stone that is basically like an open source code. We can bend to do whatever we want and whoever is attacking us knows that."

Before Ain got a chance to respond he realized it was too silent. He looked behind and saw that a lizard tried to sneak up on him with a large hunting knife. He opened his wings all the way letting the blow get absorbed by the heavy armor that covered his wings. Ain winced has the blow bounced off his wings. He spun around facing his attacker, they came at him fast , faster than any being could. Ain threw up his paws and grabbed the lizards wrist which felt like actual scales, he got pressed against the car. The knife was scary looking, it was jagged and black. Chills ran down his back as he got an up close personal look at it as he came inches away from his muzzle. He couldn't think of what to do as he felt the knife get closer to his face.

He tried to push them away but he felt the powerful motor pushing back. His heart rate quickened as he watched the knife being placed on his helmet. He realized he wasn't going to be able to out strength his attacker. He bent his knees and took off into the air, his wings strained at the extra weight once he got high enough into the air, released the lizard and watched them fall to the ground. Ain sighed as he heard the crunch of it hitting the ground.

He bent over panting after landing back next to Sally who had finished her own fight with the last lizard. Fighting was hard and using his wings was tiring. He was looking forward to sleeping.

"You should come with me. We are going to need all the help we can get." She tried to cover her mouth with her hands but the words slipped out. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

Ain bit back laughter that was threatening to come out of him. He gave a look at how she was standing figuring it would be inappropriate if he laughed. He cleared his throat. "Why would you say that?" A hint of laughter came as he talked.

She sighed. "Your party trick has caused whatever it was made with to bond with my cells now it hard for me to lie."

Now it was Ain turn to just stare in silence. Gave her a once over she looked fine besides her body being covered in dirt and seeming a bit tired.

"But anyway, we do need your help I'm guessing everything you guys use is still working."

Ain sucked his teeth. Dealing with Dylan was difficult on one hand he was dealing with his ex on the other hand he was dealing with a criminal.

"Ain?" Sally called him and he was slightly confused. Then he realized that she had been talking to him.

"Sorry didn't hear you." Ain admitted.

"I said we have a hangout and Zach and Ryan are there."

Ain broke into a smile. "Take me to them I have an idea." He might actually have a use for the crystals that were in his bag.

  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7

Ain squeezed himself under the Jeep. It was like working on an aircraft or that was what he was trying to convince himself trying to prevent himself from hyperventilating. He unscrewed a panel revealing a computer chip and a lot of wiring criss crossing each other alternating between red,blue,green, black and yellow. He reached for the computer chip and it was no bigger than one of his claws. He brought up the energy converter and attached the long tube to the undercarriage of the Jeep with the energy shard in it. He cut three yellow wires and a blue one. The car purred to life.

As he raised from under the Jeep and dusted himself off. everyone started murmuring to each other. Then the room burst into applause. "For a couple of Aliens you sure know your way around our vehicles." someone from the crowd called out

"Nice work Ain."

Ain heard Zach's quiet voice from behind him. A thrill of happiness washed over him. He turned to greet the wolf with a welcoming grin.

"You look like a natural down there." Zach praised Ain. "They won't forget about us any time soon, we will probably be the heroes of tomorrow in their eyes.

"Yeah hopefully they build statues of us." Ain half-joked. "Now to get some food." his stomach growled in agreement. As they walked he heard praises for there help. They got some displeasing stares from some of the other members.

Ain felt like he was covered in dirt and sweat. the sun had shifted higher into the sky letting him know that they had been working a while. The garage reeked of machine oil and lingered his sensitive nose

The garage was big enough to fill 100 human soldiers it would have to do since their bases had been destroyed.

As they were walking to go and get something to eat he noticed an empty tent. He tugged Zach's paw pulling him into a makeshift hangout he zipped the tent up hoping for privacy. His heart hammered in his chest. This was going to be harder than piloting blindfolded.

"I want to give you the full story on how I ended up with Dylan." Ain finally managed to squeeze out. God Zach probably thought he was trying to hit on him.

Zach sat down on the couch placing one foot paw under his butt.

"Well it started when I was sixteen and I've told you how I grew up in poverty.I never told you about my time of prosperity and how I lived like a king or damn near like one." Ain felt his speech come out fast but it was too late to slow himself down and words tumbled out of him. "I got with Dylan because I was still figuring myself out and he was only kid I knew to truly get the gay experience it was great in the first couple of months I would get gifts of things that I've always wanted but he started holding those things over my head he forced me to do so many evil things.

He had to close his eyes, tears threatened. "I stole so much, that wasn't the worst thing." Ain sniffled. "I'm a celestial dragon and my blood is rare, it's pure energy. It was something that he wished that he could bury, something that he wished he could hide but it was impossible.   
"I was used as a power source and I let them do it. I messed up all because I liked a boy and now it looks like he found a way to use it. I have to end this."

Zach stared at him and Ain just knew that Zach hated him. He sighed and wiped the tears from his eyes. He turned to leave.   
"No," Ain slowly turned around as Zach began to speak. "I've already told you I can't let you go on your own again."

The Lionarins get inside the Jeep. Ain wanted to badly shower and sleep but that would have to wait. Ain hopped in the back of the black Jeep it had an energy turret on the back he was the second best marksman on the team.   
"Give em hell guys." Sally had walked over and waved bye as they left.

As they traveled on the roads it was creepy still, nothing moved. Ain spun the turret around checking the sky an object shimmered in the light lazily. 

"Floor it!" Ain yelled as he started firing blue bolts came out rapidly. 

He was shifted back with every shot he had to anchor himself or fear being launched off. He felt his body start to scoot back as the Jeep sped up. Ain knew it was going to be a long ride he slid his foot paw across the bottom of the Jeep turning on the antigravity he felt his paws stick to the bottom of the Jeep he couldn't move them even if he wanted to. 

Ain heard a couple of shots go over their heads as they rounded a corner. He returned fire, the turret began to start glowing red as he kept firing at the invisible target. He didn't know how many shots he had till it would overheat.

He spun himself around facing forward and his heart sank as he realized that it was a straight path going forward.

No Ain wasn't going to die here. He tightened his grip on the turret and turned away from the Jeep.

He changed the visors to heat signatures; everything was blue, red and orange. that did the trick. The stingray shaped aircraft hovered behind in a deep orange with two tips on the nose of the glowed a deep red. Knowing that they would barrel roll to the right Ain. He fired off a dummy shot. He lined up his next shot. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the ship flipped. Every fiber went into him pressing the trigger.

Once the bolt connected with the ship it kept flipping until it connected with the earth and went up in a red flame. Ain felt his knees and legs get wobbly as his vision changed back to normal. He saw the gold and metallic black coat that covered the now charred ship. Ain gave himself a mental high five he would have waited till later to ask how cool that was.

As they were driving Ain felt the connection with the crystal get weaker, a few minutes later they stopped in a residential area but all was quiet. they silently crossed through the area quickly moving

Ain hopped out of the back. "Well I guess we are walking huh?" Ain asked as everyone unpacked from the Jeep.

Ryan put the coordinates in for the museum. a blip showed up on his visor showing that they were about five miles off.

"We need to take this slow, we don't know what to expect and we don't want to get into a fight out in the open." Ryan said as he walked by Ain leading the front with Glare.

Gray clouds lazily drifted across the sky. then drips of rain began softly thumping against Ain's helmet. He looked up and flinched as a raindrop landed on his visor. He watched as it rolled down his face. "We might be safe they might not be waterproof."

As they continued walking the rain had picked up from the light sprinkle to actually raining. They had abandoned the slow pace that they were and started moving like they had a purpose through the apartment complexes and courtyards. It looked as if humans went away with living in houses at least that's what Ain could pick up.

something tapped on Ain on the shoulder and he turned around to see Derrick signalling him to drop back. He joined the soaked white wolf in the back of the formation as Rocko moved forward.

"So what happened in the hotel?" Derrick asked.

"What do you mean?" Ain was caught off guard and he almost slipped in the rain.

"When you picked up the crystal your fear smell was very strong." Derrick responded. "So I'll ask again hatchling, what happened in the hotel?"

"I was just surprised that's all." Ain's mouth went dry.

"You saw something that freaked you out but didn't want to show anybody." Derrick snapped back.

"I was just surprised that's all." Ain repeated himself, hoping that Derrick would believe him.

"Yeah you were surprised that they had something come from you." Derrick growled." And now you are trying to cover it up.

Ain had a hard time coming up with a response, he just watched Derrick and simply nodded his head. "I...I was part of an experiment I was trying to do the right thing but it didn't work but I guess they figured it out." Ain finally choked out.

"Well you better figure out a way to fix our problem." Derrick retorted back as he rested his paws on Ain shoulders. A chill ran down Ain's body as he felt the power beneath Derrick's paws.

Ain kept a lookout as the rain quieted back down to drizzle. the apartments and condos thinned out and and lead to businesses . Ryan pointed to a sign that had Krispy Kreme on it and like all of the neon sighs around it was off. "We should make base here. and get a lay of the land."

They moved right in front of the building all was silent except for the birds chirping. they double door stood looming and firmly closed. Glare motioned for him and Zach to go through. Ain's hands started sweating as he slowly moved fore with his energy rifle ready. Zach grabbed on to his shoulder as he moved forward. Check the front room then check the back split up and check the rest of the restaurant. Ain made a mental note of what to do from training.

All of his senses were at a hundred as he felt like he could barely breathe as they entered the shop. From what Ain could gather, what he assumed was the dining room was empty save for some chairs next to the window to the right of the entrance.

"Clear." Ain whispered at Zach. Man he hoped that nothing was lurking or they would go somewhere else and go through the same process. Ain craned his head over the cash register breathed a sigh of relief as he saw nothing.

They cleared the back fairly quickly. Ain started to feel relieved as he was nervous over nothing but as soon as they split up he realized that he wouldn't have any back up if stuff flew off the handle.

Ain shakily reached for the door handle, his black gloves gripped the cold steel handle sending a shiver down his spine. he held his breath as he pushed down on the door handle and it creaked open. he let out a shaky breath as he stared at a white toilet. he gripped his chest and jogged back to the front were he seen Zach's grey armor waiting for him.

"Clear, Thank goodness." Ain sighed as he removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow."

"Put your helmet back on cadet." Ryan's gruff voice growled. "You never know what could still be lurking."

Ain looked at Ryan and could't stop himself. "I need to take a quick breath, geez." Ain retorted.

Ryan got real close to Ain and he could feel the anger coming off his body. He gulped. "If you die you won't need to breathe. And if you die out here that's on me. that helmet goes back on till I say so.” He spat angrily at Ain.

Ain felt his scales prickle; he couldn't look at his COs eyes so he looked at his helmet. 

"I think Ain's hard head would protect him from any oncoming bullets." Zach joked as Ain winced at Zach slapping his back. "There's a high probability that his head is tougher than helmet." 

"Alright enough, cadets. There is no time for joking. How about you two scout ahead and see what's going on." Glare said as she walked over. "Go over to the museum and don't get caught while the four of us get a plan started." 

They crept out of the doughnut shop quickly making their way down the street as their shoes softly padded across the ground. 

"Are we still on?" Zach as they neared the corner of the street.

"Yes, I take him down and arrest him myself." On the surface he was confident but internally he was scared because of the prophecy. He let Zach lead the way as they continued to the museum. "I told you we dated?"

"Yes," Zach paused and watched Ain. " You feeling okay?"

"No, yeah I'm fine." Ain looked up at the glass building that they were next to. "maybe we scout from here?" Ain asked as he brushed past Zach's question 

Ain's arms and legs strained as he lifted himself and Zach up the side of a skyscraper. It was a bit windy as he beat his wings faster. Hopefully the cover of the rain would not make them stick out. 

Rain pattered off of them. as they watched as the lizards came in and out of a large glass window they weren't doing it secret. Ain clenched his fist as he watched from a high building that looked over the latter part of the downtown area. He pressed the zoom button on his right wrist feeling visor zoom him inside the building the clarity never dropped. A hiss got lodged in his throat as he watched Dylan talking to what looked like a purple and black lizard. He had a sour taste in his mouth as he watched on. it looked as if Dylan and the lizard had been arguing. Maybe something wasn't going as planned. He quickly switched his visor to X-ray and saw that the stone was still lodged into the earth. His tail swished in the air. Ain sucked his teeth he had already pulled his gun off his back and was aiming to take out Dylan.

Suddenly with a burst of speed a white blur was on top of him. His gun went skidding across the ground.

Ain grunted as all the air was driven out of him. two heavy paws gripped him and pinned him down. 

"What the hell are you thinking?" Zach growled at him. 

God Ain was tired and all of Zach's yapping was getting on his nerves. He went limp under his friend's grip. "I was going to take Dylan out, I had the shot but you messed me up." Ain whined."

"Get a grip, if you miss they will know where we are actively after them. Zach rolled off of him. "The stone is still there." Zach put his armored wrist next to his mouth.

"Roger that, come back to the hideout we have a plan." Ryan's gruff voice responded. Ain closed his eyes glad that Zach prevented him from taking the shot.


	8. Chapter 8

  
  


It was very early in the morning and the sun hadn't raised yet. Ain yawned as he rubbed his eyes his alarm was still buzzing for him to turn it off. He rolled over to Zach who was still sleeping peacefully. I wish we could sleep in but we got a planet to save and some butt to kick. Ain thought as he tapped Zach on the shoulder. His eyes darted open and looked around. Ain almost busted out laughing.

"No more sleep for you." Ain whispered as he got up to get ready for the day. "find me when you finish waking up." Ain watched as Zach sat up on their makeshift pallet which was whatever clothes they could find in the break room. 

As he walked through the back, A sticky sweet smell hit his stomach and it gurgled in response. "I know buddy we haven't really had a chance to eat, lets see what that smell is." he softly whispered to his stomach. 

He stretched as he walked into the dining area. He kept his eyes squinted to keep light from blinding him even though the lights were dim. The smell of glazed it on donuts fermented the air. Making his stomach grumble in pain. That's when he saw the best looking glazed donuts he had ever laid his eyes on.

He started stuffing his mouth with doughnut after doughnut. giving himself a sugar high the taste of the sticky sweetness was orgasmic in his mouth he kept stuffing his muzzle. He couldn't put them down. He looked up when he saw Glare. He quickly wiped the glaze off his face. God he couldn't believe he ate all of those donuts

"Glad you are enjoying the donuts." Glare patted him on his thigh making him almost choke on his food. "I want you to know that you have been great this whole trip, I'll make sure its reflected at school."

Ain didn't say anything he just stared. He couldn't do it even if he tried he just stared. The donuts had completely dried his mouth out. God hopefully she doesn't find out or Dylan is going to be the least of my troubles..

"You okay? Your scales look paler than usually." She walked over to him.

He tried to back but was met with the edge of the table into his wings. as he closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself for the backlash Derrick and Rocko walked in the room.

"Making moves on the youngster, and hear I thought you were better than that.".

Derrick chuckled as he placed two large packages on the table. "And we finished that project, though I am curious on how The secretary of defense would react with you getting help from two very dangerous criminals. '' 

Ain face was hot. This went from bad to worse in the matter of seconds.

"Hopefully they don't find out about this." Glare sighed as she handed the package to Ain. "You and Zach are running the first breach. Then you get out."

"I-" Ain began.

"No you can't we can't afford you or Zach getting killed." Glare cut him off before he had a chance to speak his mind.

Ain opened his mouth to say something. This put a kink in his plan. He knew what he had to do. He thought about Raine had said to him what would it cost. Before he had a chance to formulate a plan, Ryan and Zach joined them. Zach sat next to him.

"Listen up." Ryan stood up and called for everyone's attention. "This is our way out of here and our only chance at freedom. I have a duty and I will make sure it is carried out. And I know you four want off so with your help we can all get what we want." He stared at them.

Ain was ready, this was more intense than self defense but he knew what he had to do. 

He nodded his head. Ain turned to Zach. "We are in."

"Yeah yeah, we're also in. Hopefully get a comfy bed and cell." Derrick yawned. 

Ain realized that Derrick isn't evil, just a wolf with screwed morals.

Glare cleared her throat "Ain and Zach you two are to plant the explosive devices and after that part of the plan you get as far away as you can. You two are our future and we can't have you dying out there." She crossed her paws over and made the loyalty sign.

"Of course Glare we will." Ain lied through his teeth. He would love to not worry about it, but there was no way he could let Dylan and his father get away with the crimes they have committed with his blood. He grabbed his case. 

"The sooner this is over the better." Ain placed his helmet over his muzzle.

It was dark outside any light seemed to be swallowed by the darkness. Ain looked up to see if the moon was out but that also seemed to be swallowed by the darkness too. They quickly made their way past the various businesses. They followed the orange light like a beacon making sure not to step on any broken branches. Ain heart began to race as he got closer to Dylan. He was ready to sprint over to the museum at the same time he knew he had a mission to do. So he continued on route. 

Ain pulled his knife out as soon as they rounded the corner to the back of the building. 

Ain breathed a sigh of relief.

"I take it that we are not leaving without confronting Dylan?" Zach asked as he crouched down next to Ain.

"You got it," Ain put his case down and opened it up like a really old flip phone. "Set your case down and listen very carefully. I don't want to blow us up. 

He tried to steady his shaky paw as he had pressed under the frame of the case. His face paws steadied after lifting the top off and exposing the wires. "We might have a slight problem." Ain said hesitantly, he analyzed the wires that criss crossed over each other. There wasn't any rhyme or reason how they crossed Ain couldn't really figure out what belonged to what wire. 

"What's the matter?" Zach said as he peered over the dragon's wings.

"These are some of the most complex freaking wires I've seen." Ain shook his head as he carefully cut the green and blue wires. He felt beads of sweat well on his forehead "I don't know if I should call this genius or idiotic." 

His heart rate slowed when he realized that he finished cutting the wires and didn't blow himself up.

He placed the case on the wall and pressed the red button and ran back around the rock where they had been hiding. He began counting down. He was starting to get nervous; he didn't know what the outcome would be. Ain started to smell smoke. He pulled his sword off his back. He kept it off, once he heard the sound of metal crunching he jumped over the rock and ran into the building.

He couldn't see anything but he heard the alarm going off, he winced as the sound was louder than he was used to. He switched his vision over to thermal heating. He saw around ten bodies moving towards him, he tried to drown the loud high pitch beeps of the alarms going off simultaneously.

"Handle them, I have to get to Dylan before Glare or Ryan can get to him." Ain took to the sky flying over the bodies coming their way. He didn't have time to worry if Zach would be okay.

He went back to where the office was located. He put his sword through the lock. He kicked the door open. The room looked sterile white light flooded the room which looked as If it could double as another art room with the space it had a long desk in the middle of the room. Dylan looked up from the blueprint and paper that were scattered around the desk. His muscles reflectively tensed as they made eye contact.

The cause of his problems stared at him like he wasn't even surprised to see him. Those cyan blue eyes didn't blink just waiting for Ain to say something.

"Why are you doing this." Ain voice wavered, he cleared his throat trying again. "Why are you doing this to me." Ain felt hot so he removed his helmet. He knew what he wanted to say to the bastard but he could't formulate the words to come out.

A smile crept across the foxes face. He brought his gloved paws to his mouth. "Aww you still think that this is about you?" He stood up and he was still dressed in all black armor from the previous day. "I couldn't care less about you, I have a war to win and that rock is an important part of it."

Ain stepped further in the room. He placed the sword in front of him, reinforcing his personal space. He turned on the sword and energy crackled from it. "I'm here to stop you then."

"My dad actually didn't think I was going to make it this far but to his surprise I'm actually winning." Dylan snickered he wasn't even fazed by the golden dragon's threat. "My dumb dragon you forgot about one thing I have an army at my disposal."

Ain felt like he got hit by what felt like a truck, as he got flung towards the ground at neck breaking speed. He tossed his sword and rolled protecting his head. He watched as his helmet landed at the leg of a chair. He put his head down. Ryan was right never take your helmet off, he would have to be extra careful. right as he was going to make his move for it a female dragoness stepped in front of him. When he saw the creature that hit him he wasn't expecting full figure dragoness with purple and teal scales, they glimmered underneath the artificial lighting showing that she was older. her outfit was a black one piece armor set and left little to the imagination. Her red broadsword contrasted against the outfit.

He got up and almost passed out from the pain that came from his side. He stretched a bit, winding his arm. Man this is going to suck. He picked up his short sword. He entered in the back left stance.

"Don't kill him Smoke I need to bring a trophy home." Dylan said as he took a seat and watched.

I'll give him a show. Ain ran at the she-dragon and sliced at her with a downward motion. She stepped out of the way with ease.

"I learned how to fight before you were even an egg you have to fight better than that boy." The dragoness hissed at him as she effortlessly dodged another strike.

Ain let out a ferocious roar as he charged at Smoke. He couldn't let them escape and definitely wasn't going to get captured. He flapped his wings once and jumped coming at her faster than anticipated. He watched her face change to shock.

Their swords clashed hard creating a mini explosion forcing them back. Ain was panting, he would have to end this fight fast. He looked up and she was on him fast, her red thin blade was singing through the air, he quickly slapped her sword away.

Ain eyes opened wide as he watched the sword come inches from his neck, he had to bend his head away, it still felt like his scales were boiling.

"You better count your blessing." She backed off pointing her blade at him next time you won't be so lucky." 

They ran back at each other. Ain was scared he didn't know how he would beat the dragoness his muscles hurt from the constant clashing. He would have to turn this battle in his favor, he knew that she was a sword master and he was just okay.

Without thinking he flew into the air slightly out of arm's reach but close enough to strike if he wanted. He somersaulted as he held his sword above his head if this move didn't work there wasn't much else that he could do. He spun as hard as he could. The floor and ceiling became one he felt his stomach flip as he saw the surprise expression from the dragoness. Ain smiled he got her, but when his sword didn't bite into anything, he felt his body move backwards and slam into the ground. the air got pushed out of him. Ain looked up as Smoke stood over him; she placed her foot paw on his chest, pinning him down.

"I win." She smirked at him as he tried to wiggle free to no avail. "Now if you wou-" She stopped speaking as they heard the sound of fighting getting closer and it sounded as if Glare and Ryan were winning.

"Pick him up, we have to move." Dylan was moving around the room, his cape flowing behind him. "I need my spacecraft. Bring it to the window."

Ain felt his body get jerked up as. He started shouting. "I am in here!" All they needed to do was open the door and stop them but the sounds of fighting continued in the hallway. This wasn't going to end well. If he could somehow break free from her grip he could reach the door. He tried his best to get out of her hold but she was way too strong as she continued to drag him toward the window.

"Dylan walked over to Ain and slapped him across the face. The stinging blow almost brought tears to his eyes. but he couldn't let Dylan see him cry. He promised himself he would get back to the little prince. "I failed my father because of you and you are going to pay for that." Dylan whined as he helped Smoke pull him into the plane.

"AIN!" He heard Glare call out as his team clambered into the room Glare looked like she lost he could guess that she was crying. seeing her face made Ain want to cry. It was his fault he made the mistake of thinking he could handle the situation on his own, but as the back of the plane closed he realized he was truly on his own.

They propped him in a chair in their meeting room and cuffed his paw around the chair. He struggled against his restraints.

"Oh Ain you can't escape and even if you did no one is coming for you." Dylan laughed. "Face it, you lost and now I have my favorite pet back."

Ain stared at the orange fox, his eyes were silted; he didn't want to give the fox anything to respond to so he growled softly. He wanted to scream and shout about how this was stupid but he just hung his head down not wanting to fight with Dylan.

Dylan stared at the white screen that seemed to take up the whole back wall of the meeting room. An ash grey fox appeared on the screen in a three piece white and black suit. Ain growl got audibly louder as Ain recognized Dylan's father who is somehow worse then Dylan could ever be. 

"Did you retrieve my stone?" Aszeck asked with a gravelly voice.

Dylan seemed to hesitate and Ain laughed to himself because at the end of the day his dad only cared about one thing and it wasn't his son and Ain had been witness to numerous arguments by the both of them. First when Ain had started showing up and Dylan proudly announced that he was his boyfriend. Then there was the time that Dylan was totally against Ain and his dad working together, which now looking back on it was a mistake.

"No father." Ain watched as Aszeck tense up, his face scowled. "But I am bringing back Ain bringing back Ain taking our total to 35 celestial dragons. Meaning we may just have enough to create another stone in a shorter period of time."

Ain stared at Dylan. 35 of my kind? Ain thought to himself. He was happy at the same time and sad. captured and forced to give up their blood for some kind of weapon. Ain felt hot tears travel down his face. If they made another one of those stones there was no stopping them.

"Yes my son that just might work." Ain heard aszeck finally speak after a couple of minutes of silence. "I'm going to move them away from the planet, i'll send you the location after this meeting. And glad to have you back Ain hopefully you are still as useful as you where before you left us." At the sound of his name Ain glared at the king.

"I am going to take that as a no." He laughed again. "No worry I have just the thing to break you and we will remold you."

His heart beat fast as the words oozed out of Aszeck's mouth. "Yeah we'll see about that." Ain scoffed as he bared his teeth at the screen. "Don't forget that I escaped you once and now I am more than capable of escaping you again. Ain couldn't stop himself.

"We'll see about that." Aszeck casual brushed Ain off. "I'll be in contact, you did well for your first mission and you will oversee this project since this was your idea." He turned his attention back to Dylan. The screen went black leaving Dylan and Ain in the room by themselves.

Ain gagged at the thought of Dylan overseeing anything pertaining to him. "You will get caught and I swear I'll be the one to lead you to your cell." Ain hissed at him as he tried to wiggle out of his chair to no avail.

  
  


"No you won't." Dylan got next to Ain's face. "You will be helping me and my father and after that I take you back home. Dylan calmly got up with a smile on his face and walked out the door. Smoke replaced him. 

"Good news,." She proceeded to press a giant needle in against his neck. "you get to live. The bad news is that you are stuck with us." She stuck the syringe into his neck and slowly began pressing whatever drug into his body

He struggled to get away. shaking the chair side to side he knew if he could tip the chair over he could possibly get away. Ain went over all of the possibilities none of them were good, his movements started to slow and his thoughts began to fog.

"You lose again." was the final thing he heard before he felt the world go dark and he was out like a light.


	9. Chapter 9

  
  


Ain woke from his dreamless slumber to a yellow room which seemed to mimic the sun's color. Ain looked around. It wasn't very interesting from what he could see two daybeds, a table and a door. He shook his head as he stood up, his legs shook beneath him, that reminded him of what happened before he passed out, he sighed it could only get worse.

He held onto the table that was against the right right wall. He looked at his hand which was covered by white gloves that rounded out his claws; he continued to look down and the white plating formed a single piece uniform. Ain pulled at it trying to peel the plating to no avail it felt hard like plastic. As he looked down on the desk there was a piece of white paper with a sketch of a dragon on it. Ain wondered who it belonged to.

It was good drawing to him, the character on the paper smirked and he felt himself staring . He wondered where the artist was. He looked over at the empty bed then back at the drawing. Ain imagined that his roommate was probably some small girl that kept to herself. He picked up the paper to get a good look at the dragon who seemed buff even though the artist style was soft it still worked.

"Why don't you put that down?" A guy's calm voice asked.

Ain almost had a heart attack he was not expecting for the 'artist' to be a guy. He put the piece of paper down and turned around. His heart thudding in his chest. Already starting off on the wrong foot.

"I wasn't expecting for you to be a guy." Ain blurted out as he turned around. Oh man he was just digging a deeper hole. Then he laid eyes on the 'artist' . He was a black dragon with angular head curved horns that went up. He was at least 100 pounds heavier and a foot taller than Ain. And the amount of piercings he had was insane from what looked like twelve on each horn and the septum on his nose plus the two shark bites on the right side of his lip and the snake bite on the left. He had the same athletic build as Ain but a lot bulkier. He quickly turned his face towards the bed.

"I meant to be here before you got up."The black dragon confessed. "Let's get something to eat and I'll give you a tour of the ship." 

The drake reached his paw out. "The Name is Crell."

"Ain." he gave Crell a firm shake.

Ain looked back at the dragon and he swore he saw the smirk from the paper. his heart began pounding, he had to get out of this cramped room. He wanted to say no but at the same time knowing what ship he was on is the only way he was getting off the ship. "Sure but I want to see every inch of this ship."

"Okay, we can do that if you wish. "Crell shot him a smile.

They walked out into the hallway and Ain was eyes searching over every inch of the hallway even though it was dark the only light came from weak fluorescent lights above them.

"So Where did you come from?" Crell asked as they passed some doors.

"I'm originally from Hozon. Ain grimaced at the reminder. "But I've been living on Luna." Ain guessed from the lights that this ship was over 50 years old Reading over the spaceship magazines as a child was going to pay off.. "Where are you from?" Ain asked as he felt on the walls it was hard concrete confirming the age of the ship.

"From Gu'un." Crell laughed to Ain's horror."Haven't been there in some time. 

"How long have you been here?" Ain asked, he just needed to see the dining area and if it had a lower level workstation.

"About a week or so." Crell paused. "The rules, right I knew there was something that I was forgetting. Before we go any further there are a couple of rules when dealing with this place, everywhere on the first floor is accessible you can enter and leave when you want. The second floor is where we work on the stone and gear, now there is fun stuff to do on that floor but we can't access it. And the top floor is only accessible when called for." 

They continued walking into another part of the ship. It was empty save for a few round desks and a self serve lunch bar on the left side of the room two guards stood next to it.

"Hey Crell." And a purple dragon with a white head called from a desk in the middle of the room. "Is that the new guy?" He had the same build as Crell

"What's up Ryzirin." Crell strutted over to the drake. Ain waited back just back enough so he wasn't really noticeable but close enough for him to hear.

"Nothing much my guy, getting a snack before work." Ryzirin popped another piece of raw meat into his mouth. "What are you too doing?"

"I'm giving Ain a tour of all of the doors." Crell said. "This place really is the dumps except for downstairs and we can't access it except for work and if we finish something on their projects."

Ain was deep in thought, he had narrowed it to two ships that fit the description. He wanted to take a peek at the cockpit and see what it looked like but he knew that was impossible. But Crell did say that there were two floors and only one ship at multiple floors 50 years ago and if memory serves him correctly.

"What about you bud?" Ryzirin asked, looking directly at Ain.

"Eh not that interesting like he said a bunch of doors and hallways isn't to say that the Orion 45 wasn't advanced for its time." Ain answered

"Huh, you sound like a dragon who knows their shit." Ryzirin paused and lowered his voice." Ain was it? Now do you know if there is a way to get off this ship?"

Ain groaned at himself he couldn't recall the layout of the ship; it was so uninteresting to him. He looked over to make sure that they weren't being overheard but it looked like they weren't paying much attention to them

"I don't really know, sorry." Ain looked down.

He thought for a second, if this ship had a fusion core that meant it is highly volitally and they would need escape ships "But there may be a third floor." Ain went on.

"Word?" Ryzirin rubbed his chin. "I'll see if anyone else knows anything." Ryzirin got up and left them to their own devices.

"Who are you?" Crell asked as they walked over to the food bar. "If you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm just a pilot." Ain answered.

"Just a pilot?!" Crell grabbed him around his shoulders. "You know how to fly a ship!" Crell was practically yelling.

Ain looked over at the guards. They were now staring directly at them. He looked back at Crell trying to tell him with his eyes that he was being too loud. To be caught before his plan came into fruition would be terrible.

"No I can't. I'm learning how to be in the military but they haven't let me fly yet." Ain said.

"Oh, sorry about that didn't mean for that to be so over the top." Crell sounded defeated. "That reminds me Prince Dylan wants to talk with you."

Ain didn't mean to crush his spirits he just didn't want the bots relaying his message to Dylan.

They ate as they exchanged information and Ain learned that Crell wanted to be a translator for his planet which was 12,000 strong and that was how he got caught. Since they did not have anything that wasn't meat he just ate a cup of applesauce.

"Unfortunately nobody is going to be looking for me. I wasn't expected back for a year or so and our communication is so outdated that they wouldn't bother to look for me." Crell explained as they walked the halls.

"Sorry to hear about that." Ain apologized. "I don't think anyone is looking for me either, probably think I went AWOL." Ain lied again he felt himself digging a deeper hole.

If you don't mind me asking why? Crell asked.

"Oh, I don't mind, Ain felt his palms sweat under his gloves. "I took a spaceship to experiment with flying and got caught by Dylan.

"Sorry to hear about that." Crell put his arm around Ain. "We will escape but for now we have to act." Crell said 

They walked through a giant door and were met with a long table in the middle of the room. It was dark with a red glow. There were two dragons dancing on the table with long flowing veils that covered their bodies and muzzles. Ain felt his gaze stick as they danced provocatively. The streams followed every motion they made.

"Are you enjoying the show?" Dylan asked as he motioned them to take a seat. "I called you here to make sure that you are properly integrated into your community." Not giving a chance for them to answer.

Ain crossed his hands over his chest. Oh so now Dylan was going to try to make him feel as if he had a home here instead of being kidnapped against his will. Feeling where still there for Dylan he could tell by the way he teased him. Ain was not going to make it easy on the prince. He shifted his eyes in a more alluring position, The music picked up as they stared at each other.

Dylan swallowed and looked away from Ain. "Crell he can work with you, but I want him hands on with the stone since he's the only one that successfully got anything to work around here."

"Yes your highness." Crell's voice slightly broke and Ain snickered to himself.

"Make sure that you report him to Darmeethius. I need you to get on the hondels."

Ain's eyes went wide when he heard Hondels. That was a really offensive word to call dragons. He could believe that the prince knew such a foul word.

"I-"

"Do not engage him." Crell whispered into his ear. "If that is all prince I would love to get back to work."

Dylan shooed them out as he watched the dancers as he laid on the arms of the chair popping grapes into his mouth.

As they got back into the elevator Ain yelled some not so kind words in canine. Crell just stared at him wide eyed. He felt the anger slowly release through his words as he felt himself go from boiling to just simmering. "What language was that?"

"Canine." Ain sort of barked.

They came down to the last floor, saying it was hot would be an understatement,he felt his scales slightly expand from the heat that he felt coming out of the room.

"It sure is hot." Ain coughed as the heat.

"Yeah, it's one of the perks of working in the forge." Crell stood next to him as they looked at the stone in the center of the room with all sorts of wires leading to a band around the stone. In the corner were empty battery cells

"Wait, this floor is producing nuclear energy!" Ain pulled at his suit as he tried to get relief.

"Well you would be correct." Ain heard a gruff voice from behind him. This room is roughly at 250 degrees and we are about five or six room away from the nuclear core."

He turned around and a grey dragon stood before him, calling the drake tall would be an understatement he was slightly shorter than the ceiling Ain would guesstimate around seven or so feet. Ain wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead. He needed to get out so he focused on escaping.

"I'm going to fill these." Ain walked over to the empty battery cells.

"What about the stone?" Crell asked as he dabbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

"What about it?" Ain looked back at Crell. "Look, if we fix everything it's over and I don't know about you but I would rather spend a hundred years rather than give the enemy an upper hand."

"Well that is a valid option young hatchling." The grey drake placed his meaty paws around Ain shoulders. "Well how do we do this energy transfer business."

Ain actually had to think about it. It was something that came natural like riding a bike, something he did and explaining would be hard.

"Are you glowing?" Crell stared in amazement as he watched on.

"Yes, now watch and be amazed." Ain drew about a litter of energy towards the palm of his hand. He felt his body weak as his energy slowly transferred to the cylinder capsule. It filled to the top, he cut the flow off and his head started spinning, it had been a while.

He turned and showed the battery cell off as it shined a bright blue. He felt his eyelids get heavy. He made a step towards Crell who was standing not that far from him but it felt like that step used all of his energy.

"You okay?" Crell sounded worried and Ain didn't know why.

"Yeah I'm fine I just need to rest for a bit." 

This was not good. He closed his eyes before he took the next step, his legs were so heavy almost like he had on ankle weights. and he felt his body topple over, he didn't want to do anything about it all he could think about is sleeping.

  
  
  



	10. Chapter 10

Ain paced the floor looking at the blue print, Crell had given him another drawing of a glove this time the whip came out of the palm. The slow panting coming from the corner of the room. his ears twitched in frustration training was taking longer than he had expected. Two weeks have passed and they were no closer to escaping without having to fight their way out and with untrained fighters he would lose. Another grunt, this time Ain's attention snapped to the green dragon sweating as she glowed a soft blue.

"Focus it into your hand please." Ain commanded.

more grunting ensued as the blue energy went from surrounding her body, to just around her hand. then it slowly fizzed out. He sat behind his desk pulling out a cylinder shaped attachment.

"This for you." Ain said he connected some wires to it. and took out a tiny blade and cut into the carbon fiber of the glove and hid the wires in it.

"what is it?" she winced as Ain stuck a needle into her wrist."

"An energy sword. try it out, focus the energy into your hand. the sword materialized lazily as he watched her concentrate. "alright good now release it."

"That's really cool Mr.Blake." Layla hugged him.

Crell walked into his small class room. He threw papers on the desk and immediately looked down.

"What's wrong?" Ain asked as he shooed the Layla out.

"Dylan wants to meet with you later." Crell's voice was very monotonous. "And they want to see more progress with the stone. His father is starting to ask questions and I did my best to answer all the questions."

Ain picked up the papers which showed the levels of the stones input. It was already two times higher than it had been since last week. Ain's mind raced as he thought of ways to slow down input but at the same time meet expectations. Could he use his title? Was training them enough even though he practically trained everyone? Did he have a choice?

"Ain, I need you to meet with him, we might have a chance to get through to Dylan knowing your history."

"I can't, it's just that, history. Nothing but old news." Ain huffed.

"You can and you will, the fate of us depends on it. We will be shackled for the rest of our life and it is not worth living." Crell said

"Fine I guess, but I won't like it." Ain finally grumbled. Ain pushed the date out of his mind. As he focused energy into his palm extending the blue shield came off of his glove it was slightly taller and wider than him. He looked at Crell who looked back. It actually worked, his crazy plan worked. He couldn't find the words to voice how he felt.

"Holy crap guys it worked." as if right on queue Ryzirin walked in his white head blended in with their uniform. "Have you tested it? Ryzirin asked with bright eyes.

"No not yet." Ain eyes also lit up. "You want to try?"

"Don't hurt him, we still have to escape." Crell butted in.

Ryzirin waved him off and produced a sword from his hand. Ain licked his lips in anticipation. everything should go fine the shield was still holding up with no flickering, he had a good heart beat going. He looked at Ryzirin and nodded. He came flying at Ain. His mouth opened as Ryzirin was sent reeling backward. He ran over to Ryzirin laughing.

"Now that was funny." Ain said as he helped Ryzirin up.

"It felt like I hit a brick wall." Ryzirin laughed as he rubbed his wrist. "I'm going to ice and rest up so I'll catch you later.

Ain nodded as he deactivated the shield. He had more things that he wanted to work on.

"Back to the lab for us." Ain said as he dragged Crell with him.

Back in the room which Ain had turned into a workstation he stripped most of the panels off near his bed and connected the wires to his laptop. He smiled at it, it wasn't much but it worked for programming chips to work with their energy weapons. and a little 3D printer sat in the corner. Crell desk was mainly filled with notes and drawings of gloves that worked as a sort of blueprint that Ain and Ryzirin could follow.

"The whip is almost finished just a little more." Ain said as he gently picked up the rickety laptop it looked like it was put together by someone who didn't know how technology worked. He caressed the buttons with his paw tips. He pressed the run button.

there was a knock at the door. Ain heard Crell answer the door as he loaded a new chip into the reader next to the printer and he started a print job for the whip.

"It's for you." Crell called to Ain.

Ain walked over, his blood ran cold and he had forgotten his date. Dylan's green eyes locked on to his own violet one. He didn't want to do this again. Why did he have to fall in love? if only he kept walking when Dylan called him over to his table in high school he would not be in this situation.

"Prince Dylan." Ain gave a slight bow.

"Don't be like that honey bug." Dylan said. "Come with me."

He grabbed Ain by his arm leading him to the elevator. Ain's eyes were wide open as they walked down the halls. this couldn't be happening. He continued to cling on Dylan's arm to keep from fainting.

"How's the training going?" Dylan asked.

"Well...I guess" Ain answered. He looked down as they passed the watering hole. trying not to draw any attention to himself

"I have heard good progress. and morale is high on the ship and seems like you are a good teacher." Dylan smiled at him.

"Just doing my job." Ain gritted.

Dylan called an elevator for them which instantly opened for them. The ebony panels had a slight purple hue from the light that shone down. Dylan entered a key card when they stepped in. the second floor button lit up. the door slowly closed sealing them in the oxygen less coffin.

"Still scared of elevators I see." Dylan said as he rubbed between Ain wings.

Ain glanced at Dylan and quickly glanced back at the door just waiting for it to open. He leaned away from Dylan as best he could as he intently watched the door.

"My father says you have made good progress and that the plan is on track to be completed next month. Dylan continued to rub Ain's back.

The few seconds that he was in the elevator felt like forever. Finally the elevator opened. Ain's eyes covered every inch of the hanger and his eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing. at least thirty ships sat there waiting all different sizes. He couldn't believe he hit the jackpot.

"I wanted to ask something of you." Dylan turned to Ain.

"Whats up?" Ain asked as he continued to list off all the ships that he saw. none made for combat.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to rule with me."

"Wait what why."

"because fuck my dad and fuck the past." Dylan said. "You can be the keeper of dragons."

"set us free then." Ain said softly.

"I can't, I have to know celestials are at. your race is powerful, too powerful to lose."

Ain rolled his eyes, he knew that Dylan couldn't understand what was wrong with his statement. And he had no energy to explain why it was wrong. He couldn't wait to escape Dylan who is clearly suffering from affluenza

"I'll be no better than a slave master. Just because I am of the same race doesn't make it any better." Ain didn't understand what Dylan didn't understand. That they wanted to be free, not controlled.

"But I love you." Dylan grabbed for Ain again pulling him in.

"And I don't." Ain growled

Ain shoved past Dylan, he grabbed the key card that was on his hip and pushed away quickly and made his way into the elevator.

"Trust me bitch boy you are only here because of nepotism, you are nothing." Ain spat at the fox that seemed to shrink into clothes.

Ain mashed the first floor. He tapped his foot and he was still simmering. He couldn't believe that they have everything to escape. his frown slowly turned into a smirk as he thought about how he was going to destroy Dylan's reputation.

As the door opened he ran as fast as he could to the watering hole. He heard talking coming from inside. He waited as the door automatically opened. He saw an array of dragons; it looked like most of them were here.

"I did it." Ain huffed as he held up the key card. This was their only chance to get out.

Cinder a purple dragon stepped forward. "What's that for?"

"The second floor is a hanger and there are ships waiting for us. " Ain said.

"Uh weird question but anyone here a pilot?" Ain asked

five hands went up. It wasn't much but Ain knew that the job would get done.

"These are the captains," Ain pointed to the four dragons that stepped forward. "Link up with them and be prepared to move at a moment's notice."

Ain signaled over Crell and Ryzirin. There was something that was bothering him about his plan. He released a sigh as he watched as the dragons talked over who they were going to work with. He couldn't wait to leave.

"What's going on?" Crell asked as they huddled in the corner of the watering hole.

"I want to take the two of you with me." Ain muttered low enough for just for the three of them to hear.

"What about everyone else?" Ryzirin asked alarmingly.

"They can do whatever they want. We can't be found together ever again." Ain said.

"We can..." Crell was cut off by the sound of boots running towards the door.

Time was up and Ain knew it. he looked around the room and they looked scared. He conjured up his sword in his left hand.

"This is it., We have to win." Ain said as he rolled his shoulders. it's been a few weeks since he got shot at.

Ain heard a big crash Crell pushed over the pool table mostly everybody hid behind the table. the door opened and lashed out with his sword going through a metal lizard mid section he quickly pulled them in the room. Ain knew there was no turning back. He looked at his family and he was terrified of their future

  
  
  



	11. Chapter 11

"TO ME!" Ain shouted as he picked up the rifle. His heart was racing as he fired the weapon into the hallway. They needed to make it to the elevator if they wanted to escape. That damned fox. As he stepped into the hallway three dragons rushed in front activating their shield. bullets were adsorbed into them. Ain nodded his head as he fired through them. It was going well so far.

"Anyone with a sword attack with me." Ain threw his gun away and rushed forward sticking his sword into the nearest bot. They made a triangle formation as they pushed forward. Ain felt a sense of hope as he pressed on. The elevator was a couple of steps ahead. More bots seemed to fill the room as they continued to push forward, he could tell that everyone was tiring quickly more seemed to drop back to behind the shields there were two maybe three left fighting with him. 

He put his head down and began trading blows with the bots.

He was glad the rooms were too small to use guns. He quickly took the head off of the last one standing in the way of the elevator. He swiped Dylan's key card against the elevator pad, the blackened elevator opened Ain ran in and beckoned more. 

"I can take 15, he needs three Captains." Ain released his sword. His vision blurred the energy weapons while taking a tax on him. He shook his head. They still needed to get out of there.

15 dragons plus Crell loaded into the elevator. The weight slowed the elevator down. The slow elevator music made Ain giggle. 

"Is that the great leader Ain giggling?" Crell laughed.

"The elevator music and this intense moment is hilarious." Ain giggled as he talked. 

The elevator door chimed open to a red room with ships seemed like it was untouched since his meeting with Dylan.

He handed Crell the key card. "Take care of the rest please." Ain said. "he'll make sure that they make it out of here." Ain watched as Crell got back on the elevator.

He looked at the captains and signaled them onto the transport ships. They weren't the fastest but they would give them the best chance of success. Ain watched outside he kept his eye wandering around looking for any signs of trouble. The silence was disturbing him but he continued to keep watch. Both ships were loaded up. He watched as the other three loaded up he kept wiping his palm against his legs.

Ryzirin walked over to Ain. "Look i wish i could drop everything and come with you but his family is waiting for me to come back." 

Ain looked at Ryzirin and he couldn't believe that he was losing a friend. "he..." Times like this he wished that someone was waiting for his return, he thought about how Zach would be waiting for him "I understand." Ain hugged him. "Keep your family safe." He said as he let Ryzirin go.

"Look after Crell please?" Ryzirin asked

"he will." Ain Choked out 

Ryzirin ran off to join another ship. Ain looked at Crell who was standing next to him. He instantly embraced Ain. 

"It's going to be okay, okay."

Ain started crying. He tried to sniffle them back to no avail.

"Actually, we need to take off now Boarag rigged the ship to blow." Crell said.

"He did what'" Ain thought about how weird it was that no one was attacking them. "Okay come on, I have the perfect ship."

Ain started running towards a fighter jet. It was a shiny red with splashes of orange. It was one of the faster ships in the universe. Ain knew it was a dangerous ship claiming many lives just from crashing. 

He flipped the lid and jumped in the cockpit. There was little leg room but Ain felt calm; he was in control of his own life and this wasn't a trapped place. 

He sat in the seat and strapped himself in placing the seatbelts like an X over his chest.

"Let's hope this works." Ain worked on the switches that fired up the engine. He had felt the hum to life like it had its own heartbeat. 

He placed the oxygen mask over his muzzle. He pressed another button and the top hissed down sealing them in. He took a deep breath and shakily pressed the red button to the right. The ship shot out like a bullet. It was intense he felt his vision flicker. He reached for the switch and kicked off the afterburner as they sped along the runway. The red room flew by like a blur. 

Ain had to rub his eyes; he couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was black to the point that he could barely make out the other ships.

"That was intense." Crell chuckled.

"For sure, my baby can really hustle along." Ain laughed.

Ain, He flipped a switch turning the lights. There was nothing as far as the eye could see. Not even white or blue dots showed signifying stars. They truly were in the vacuum of space. 

"Where are we?" Ain asked as he sped up. Ain was at his most comfortable. He pushed down on the throttle to his left.

"Looks like the edge of the Milky Way." Crell responded. Anything on the Intergalactic Space position System?" the gold dragon asked.

Ain looked down and there was a massive heat signal. Ain dragged his palm across the digital radar and it looked like a massive hole. He placed a pin down showing that they were around a solar system away from the weird energy surge. He looked back and watched as the battleship blew up, sending debris in different directions. 

"Yeah it looks like a white hole. Ain said. "Hold on.'' Ain banked to the left it felt so smooth his body shifted with the plane. Little dots appeared on the radar; they were stingray shaped. Ain quickly brought up the crosshair HUD. A u-shaped steering came out of the middle console. 

"Hey Ain am is supposed to be doing this?" Crell asked. Ain heard his seat rotate. 

Ain had to rack his brain. "Uh this ship has reverse firing." the gold dragon tilted the steering wheel forward. His palms were slick under his gloves. Dying cramped like this would be the worst. His eyes darted around still nothing.

They swiftly approached the dots. 

"I have something tailing us." Crell's voice wavered.

"Give them hell." Ain called back as he watched more dark blobs appear in front of him. He counted at least three. He raced past them with ease. 

"I'm going to let them tag along" Ain grunted as he banked hard again dodging the firing of the ships behind him as he continued towards the wormhole. The turning was clunkier as the computer was having a hard time keeping up with his flicking of the throttle. 

"And why would that be." Crell sounded strained. 

Can't let them see the ships that-"

Crell let out a roar that was animalistic. "Got one." 

Ain’s stomach fluttered. He shook his head and did a belly roll dodge out of the way of a laser strike. This was getting dangerous but they needed time. His breath was coming out quickly as he continued his aerial dance across the void of space. His twitchy muscles were the only thing keeping them alive at the moment. The outline of the worm intensified as he raced towards it. 

"Boom, another down." Crell laughed.

Aim laughed with him till he felt the ship jump up and down. He looked down and saw a warning sign over the landing gear symbol. 

"Shit they got our landing gear." Ain grumbled, he started zigzagging toward the now blinding white light. "turning on the afterburners again hold on." He switched on the after burner and his head slammed back against the cushioned as they rocketed towards the white mass. 

Probably the most reckless thing that he has ever done. Ain narrowed his eyes; this was his moment his heart pounded in his chest but not out of fear. He licked his covered muzzle as the golden dragon navigated the ship towards white hole. 

"I can't steer us!" Ain panicked as he jerked the throttle back and forth to no avail. the ship basically powered down keeping only the necessities on. He shook his head. Ain couldn't believe what he was going through. He knew that he tended to get caught up in getting to the next task that he tended to forget being in the moment. He sighed as he rested his head against the headrest. 

"I'm just going to relax and enjoy the ride." 

"That's the spirit." Crell sounded rhapsodic. 

As they traveled through the hole it felt like they were being sucked into to white void. Ain looked around absorbing everything he saw, the stars looked so far but close at the same time that he felt as if he could reach out and touch them. Even the white nebulous clouds seemed to pass through the ship with ease like there was nothing between them and this white hole of energy. The stars twinkled in a way that he had never seen, he felt as if his body and the stars were entwining and becoming one. this was really happening. 

their journey through the wormhole felt short and long. like they had been drifting hours and seconds at the same time. he saw the clouds start to wan out HE felt the power of the ship start to speed back up and he had full control he was still in a haze nothing felt real. he couldn't believe what he was seeing, he rubbed his eyes there had to be like a gazillion asteroids littered around from the size of his ship to mountain.

"This is going to be interesting," Ain fiddled around with the Intergalactic Space position System seeing that they were trapped between Venus and Earth and this colossal asteroid belt. "You should hold on." was the only warning he gave. He needed to focus the only way we are going to make it out is if he was 100 percent focused. 

It was like traffic but with no stop lights, rocks seemed to whizz past him with ease. He readjusted his paw on the throttle and took off. the young dragon switched from the crosshair to asteroid prediction Ain knew that if was to make it alive that he had to follow the direction of the rocks

He wiped his brow with his gloved paw, soaking up some of the wetness. this was something that he hasn't been through yet; it was always referred to as a living minefield and it was taught slowly. He weaved around the asteroids keeping his head on a swivel, eyes always scanning the scene around him. Ain knew he had it. there was no way he was going to fail.

The throttle hard leather began to hurt against his palm. Ain still didn't know why companies still use leather. The ship beeped at him about another asteroid. Ain looked all around where the hell was it? he asked myself. out of the corner of his eye the golden dragon saw this massive asteroid the size of a high-rise building. it was gaining on them with ease.

"directed towards our left!" Crell called out.

"Yeah I see." Ain licked his lips.

he raced away asteroids had no escape options to his left or right. his heart rate increased. He racked his brain. as the space rock got ever closer. he seen a tiny gap it wasn't much but he didn't have much choice. he jackknifed us between two asteroids, as he flew between them, he noticed that they were inching towards each other. he looked over head at the grey chunk of frozen rock. he couldn't believe that his father decided to get into mining knowing how dangerous it was. Him dying made it worse even though they were barely scraping by.

Ain shook his head, ridding those thoughts from his head as he corrected the jet. The asteroid must have collided with another asteroid because debris was being launched at them. He started breathing hard as he dodged away from the debris narrowly, he couldn't keep this up for much longer.

"Calm down tiger," Crell rubbed his shoulder making Ain take a deep breath slowing his heart rate, as they straightened out of a corkscrew maneuver

"Thank you." Ain said as he narrowed his eyes and fired through an asteroid creating a hole big enough for them to fit through. He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched a blue marble start to grow bigger. He turned on the after burner again burning the rest of the oxygen in the engine. The ship started stuttering as we entered into Earth's gravitational pull. 

"I have to stop by McDonalds before leaving," Ain muttered to himself as his stomach growled. "Contacting a friend to see if they are still on Earth."

"Are we supposed to be shaking like this?" Crell asked as they violently shook back and forth. 

"Yeah, hey do want to get what I think is the best food in the universe " It was rougher than what he remembered.

"Who is this?" Zack's little voice broke through the intercom distracting him from the rough turbulence.

he couldn't help but laugh at his voice. "I'm sorry, it's In his man." 

"It's really you!" Zach screamed making him turn down the intercom.

"Yeah It's me alive in the flesh," he chuckled. "he can't believe that you doubted me." he tried to sound as astonished as possible.

"No, he honestly thought it was going to take more time for you to escape your-"

"So where are you at so he can put in the coordinates." he cut Zach off from spilling the beans.

"still in Kansas City trying to find you."

"Guess that was easy." he muttered to myself. he placed the coordinates in. He had to double check it looked like it was just a desert and nothing more.

"You sure?" 

Actually yes we used the batteries from the lizard to try and track them down but that only sent us further down the rabbit hole. and now we are currently trying to figure out if this deserted city was a cause of energy usage."

Ain put on the juice burning fuel like no tomorrow. He drummed his hand on the Throttle as he thought about it.

"Wait that sounds like high energy rain." Crell finally spoke. Ain felt bad for almost forgetting that Crell was in the back seat. It fries the air keeping rain clouds from forming.

"Who's that?" Zach asked.

"Oh his name is Crell." 

"Nice to finally meet you Zachary." Crell.

"But yes you are right," Zach continued.

Ain seen what Zach was talking about. The sky was clear and looked down and saw that it was 48.89 °C outside. 

"uh you might want to clear out we have no working landing gear." he looked out the side of the window as he looked at his ship waiting for him. He prepared all of the switches and buttons for landing. He looped around a skyscraper gaining and losing altitude slowing down. There was a long stretch of street. 

"hold onto your butts." Ain grunted as they bounced across the street. It was super rough and felt like he was getting kneed on the butt. then they came to a grinding stop.

Ain opened the top of the door. unlatching himself, he couldn't stand another second of waiting. 

"Ain thank goodness it's you." Glare ran over to him and gave.

"Yup its me." he rubbed the back of his head. "It's really me. " he trailed off; he couldn't believe he was back. It almost felt like nothing changed. He looked at every one but it had changed. Ain put his head down, it was finally over.

"You ran off without us." Ryan shouted just behind Glare.

he flinched; it was his fault shouldn't have run off by himself. "Look I found out what they-" Ryan cut Ain off before he had a chance to finish.

"On to the ship," Ryan snarled at Ain. "we will discuss this later. Just be glad you survived."

"Should he leave or stay?" Crell asked, Ain looked at him hoping that it was a yes.

"Yes because you are evidence." Ryan rubbed his muzzle. 

"I-" Crell started. "Okay."

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first completed work so thanks for giving it and me a chance.


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